


Cold Blooded King

by TalesofKaiju



Series: Madisons Monsterverse [1]
Category: Godzilla - All Media Types, Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: Minor Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse)/Mothra, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 91,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27138598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalesofKaiju/pseuds/TalesofKaiju
Summary: Godzilla was able to defeat King Ghidorah, together with the help of the humans. But now the world changes, the Titans are up again, and Madison must now trust her faith in Godzilla and follow her own fate, among Titans.
Relationships: Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse)/Madison Russell
Series: Madisons Monsterverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2150574
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	1. The kidnapping

**Chapter 1: The Kidnapping**

Several months have now passed since the awakening of the Titans. A few months after Godzilla's victory over King Ghidorah, and a few months after Emma Russell's death. It was confirmed that she was killed during the final battle of Godzilla and King Ghidorah.

While others celebrated Godzilla's victory over the One who is many, Madison, Emma's daughter, and Mark Russell, her ex-husband, mourned her death. However, it seemed to slowly get better again. Godzilla went back to his home, the ocean, while the other Titans searched for new territories.

Titan Scylla, a sort of giant crustacean, built a nest near Alaska, actually preventing further melting of the glaciers in the region and cooling the temperature. Titan Behemoth, a distant relative of the mammoth, sought refuge in the Amazon rainforest. The rivers that where in his way started to cleans from all sort of waste, for several miles, any woodcutters, legal or illegal, ran away from the Titan, in fear.

The Queen Muto, who also arrived with the others at the end of the battle of Godzilla and Ghidorah, swam towards Japan and fed on the abundant needs of radioactivity in the Fukujima plant. In fact, the levels of radiation seemed to go down, slowly but steadily.

Rodan, the fire demon, was looking for a new volcano to nest in, as the old one erupted and was destroyed by Ghidorah. He found a suitable one in the Philippines, luckily there lived no humans, thus there was no risk in leaving him there.

Even though these Titans were not aggressive in nature, they did attack when they felt threatened. That was why restricted zones had been established over miles to protect the people in the area.

Nevertheless, there was damage from time to time, if the Titans should continue to move. People had to adapt, and not everyone was happy.

However, Monarch was feverishly trying to find an optimal solution to live together with the Titans. Godzilla kept the other Titans in order, and made sure that they didn't get too strong. That's why Monarch concentrated on him.

Dr. Russell continued to research the echo signals and communication of the Titans. He received an offer at Castel bravo to work at Monarch's main headquarters. He accepted this gratefully. In fact, he soon teached others who were just beginning to work there.

And Maddie? Since of course she had no school at the moment where she could go, she went with her father. She liked it there somehow. Since she was in Boston a lot had changed. She had always been positiv towards the Titans, but now felt even more connected with them. Moreover, Godzilla not only saved the world, but also her mother, her father, and herself, several times. Somehow she thought she had to thank him.

Which of course was impossible. A littel girl saying "Thank you." To a 400 ft tall monster, a funny thought. She had always a bit to giggle about it, she kind of became a bit of an Fan of him. Times have changed.

At least she was doing one of her hobbys, drawing. After Mark was resettled, it was very stressful, constantly having any appointments, lessons, problems when a Titan moved from a location.

Maddie was quite alone in Castel Bravo for some time. It was also in the middle of the sea, and there was no one her age. She drew a lot, especially pictures of the Titans. It was pretty easy to do that, if you directly got good sight at the actual creatures to pick up from.

She didn't feel lonely, even if she mourned her mother at the beginning, it was kind of hard to deal with it. Sometimes she also visited her fathers lectures in secret. She wanted to learn much more about the Titans, especially about Godzilla. Like her mother, Maddie wanted to work with Monarch. But for the time being Mark was strictly against it.

However, she continued to learn secretly, and now understood much more about the Titans, and that they are not just animals. But that wasn't the only thing she did. Sometimes she sneaked into the control room where Godzilla's Bio Acoustics was displayed. She plugged in her headphones and listened to the sounds. Sometimes it was just ocean sounds, but underneath was his sleeping. But at his resting place he also sometimes made sounds of himself that sounded very, very quiet.

It was strange, but she felt comfortable with it.

* * *

**January, Castle Bravo 16:09**

Maddie was just in the canteen, there was nothing special. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. It was probably not as bad as it sounded, usually they try to make it tasting a little bit better, but it's in most cases just prepared junk food. There weren't that many there, a few soldiers, a scientist, all quite distributed on the tables. She came in earlier because that usually gave her some space since she mainly wanted to eat alone. She ate less over the months thought, it was more to keep a routine and normal mind then actually eating something.

While Maddie was poking in her food, she listened to music and looked on her Iphone. In fact, the Internet connection was surprisingly good there. Despite the fact that the base was a "few feet" below the surface. She just tipped through it, looking on various social medias. While looking something up, she found an interesting article about the Titans. Well interesting wasn't usually the choice of words for those articles. Most of these where anti Titans, telling people lies about them, how these monster try to kill the earth, wich was an lie. It made her quite angry sometimes, but she also couldn't just ignore it either.

However it was nice to see a little more of the outside world on the phone, the platform outside was another option, even when it was raining, but it was usually the rain was to heavy or thundery there, so that option basically fell into the water.

While she kept poking around in her food and looking at her phone, someone sat in front of the table. She didn't notice at first, the headphones she was wearing were turned up very loud.

Then he stretched out his hand and snapped once in front of hers, "Huh?" She looked up around Dr. Rick Stanston. "Hey, Maddie, how's it going?" She stuck out her headphones and smiled briefly. Stanston was a real comedian sometimes. "What's up Rick?" "I'd love to talk for a second, but before that, are you eating that minced insult from a meat loaf with porridge?" She looked over, yes, she poked it to death. "No, you can take it."

Rick took him in with an extra fork and took a bite. "So what did you want to talk about?" "Well, how do you like it here, in this little fortress of solitude?" He asked with a half-full mouth, Maddie had to giggle a little. "Quite well why?" "Well, I just wanted to point out that it would be better not to leave his drawings on a panel for monitoring the probably, king of monsters." He handed her a drawing she had drawn last night. "Wait where from, oh..." He just nodded with a smile. "Did you also-?" "Yes, I also checked some of the cameras. I saw what you did, but I don't know exactly what it was?"

Maddie looked around. "Did you tell Dad?" She whispered to him. "No while I haven't said it yet, and if you want it to stay that way, would you tell me what you did?"

Maddie suddenly turned quite red in the face, she was embarrassed to talk about it. "Well, um, how am I supposed to say..." "Take your time?" He took another bite while she tried to explain. "Well I have Godzilla's... Bio acoustics viewed... and also listened. I don't know I like the sounds down there, it's quite relaxing and I like to draw and-" "It's okay. Quite calmly." He once gave her time to breathe deeply. "I don't have a problem in principle with that, only the problem is if you touch something wrong in the control room, hell could break loose."

"I'm sorry." "Don't be, I understand you, the events in Boston have changed a lot." She looked away at the floor when he said that. "Oh um, sorry." "It's all right." He sighed briefly, he knew she wasn't quite over it yet. Rick also knew that she would love to work with Monarch to follow in her mother's footsteps. However, her father didn't seem to want that.

"Well, I got something for you for admitting it." He took a USB stick out of his pocket and smiled friendly. "What... is that?" She took it in her hand, it was a normal USB stick, but it had special contents. "On it are audio recordings of Godzilla which I always save. I will always give you new ones when we have them".

The light glow on her face was priceless. "Oh, thanks, Rick." She hugged him. "Ahah, don't do nothing, uh, careful with the food." Her sleeves from her hoodie were almost inside. "ups, sorry." "It's alright, oh." She looked high at the clock in the canteen, 16:20, she was almost too late to Mark's lecture.

"I-I gotta go fast, was nice to have talked." "All right, let's go." She ran out of the canteen.

Rick giggled briefly and continued to eat the meat loaf.

* * *

**Castel Bravo, lecture room 16:25**

Dr. Mark Russell was in the lecture room with Dr. Ilene Chen today. Their "class" consisted of 7 newcomers to Monarch who had just started there.

Chen and Russell made a pretty good team together, working with them helped both to get a little over the last few months.

Mark was just waiting outside for Chen and was sipping his coffee. He was wondering all the time if he should change anything. This work was indeed very important, he would train more and future members who would follow in his and others' footsteps.

He looked around and briefly looked inside the room. It was a glass wall as an entrance, he wasn't necessarily tall. However, covered by shalosiums, and in addition the room was soundproof.

The 7 newcomers were already sitting on their tables, chatting or doing something. A projector stood in the middle for the small presentation they were planning.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned while Chen smiled at him. "Are you ready?" "Pretty much, yeah." She noticed he was a little nervous, he quickly tapped around on his coffee cup.

"If you're nervous or uncomfortable, I can do it alone." She had a nice Chinese accent when she talked. Mark looked down at his cup and nodded. "It's all right, I swear." "Fine, but take your time."

While they were talking, nobody noticed Maddie sneaking through a ventilation system. These tubes were quite large, and a large vent grille was at the right corner of the room from the entrance.

As usual, she carefully and quietly unpacked her bag, took out her notepad and a pen, and set up everything for class. And just at that moment Mark and Chen entered the class. "Good evening everyone, I hope you're not too tired yet." Mark joked a little, and immediately they all took out their notes.

Chen put the projector down better and started the presentation. (Mark) "Well, today we start with a new chapter, the ranking of the Titans." (Chen) "While some think the Titans would hunt alone and survive. But this assumption is wrong, the strongest of them, each of a kind, form a pack together." (Mark) "And like some pack animal, they all react to an alpha."

Mark switched to HD recording of Godzilla, the last from the submarine when they woke Godzilla. He stared at the screen, remembering that moment again. Chen continued. "Well, and this Alpha isn't alone, there's always a male, like Godzilla, and a female." Chen switched to pictures of Mothra, a great astonishment went through the room, she was impressive even on pictures.

Maddie also smiled, Mothra had just started the whole thing for her. "Well, and this alpha female, is not necessarily the same species. Titanus Mosuras, and Titanus Gojiras species, have a symbiotic relationship that does not lead to mating, but to the balance between the Titans." "Right, as Dr. Chen said. Therefore, a new alpha will only be accepted if the alpha female also accepts it. So it can also be against a new male."

Mark showed pictures of Mothra fighting against Ghidorah together with Godzilla. Chen continued, "The reason Ghidorah took on the role of Alpha, however, were two reasons: The female, Mothra, had not yet fully developed by that time, and Godzilla was declared dead. So the Titans could only hear him, and followed his orders."

Then one of the students pointed out. Mark asked, "Yes, please?" "But Mothra is dead now, so Godzilla leads the Titans alone?" "You could say so, yes." He answered. "However, just a month ago we discovered eggs that might be possible from Mothra." Then another student in front of him asked something. He nodded to her. "But couldn't another species fill the gap in the meantime?" "We don't know that yet. But a species could, if it proved worthy."

* * *

**16:35 Philippines, Rodans Volcano**

The volcano remained calm, as did the Titan who housed it. Rodan was perfect for living in and adapted to volcanoes, his skin withstood any heat in this dangerous dwelling. A wise strategy to stay away from enemies, otherwise there were just few who could withstand this heat. Rodan was sleeping quietly on his nest, and was consuming the volcano's energy.

Much further down, on the beach of the island, Monarch had set up a small base camp to observe Rodan's activities. But just now the small group of about 6 people sat together at a campfire and told each other stories.

"There I was on the Argo, you know, down in the hangar. Straight into this tropical storm of Monster Zero, where we had just hung Rodan. Then this dragon throws turkey into the water and suddenly hunts us. And while Dr. Russell had just opened the hangar, throwing one of the helicopters into the water, the other one crashed into the hangar. He shredded almost half the hangar", but then he was interrupted when Rodan suddenly moved, leaving the earth slightly shaken. He looked south and roared loudly. But he didn't start moving yet.

"Quick, everyone to the camp, we must call them." called a woman. All 6 immediately ran into the tent and tried to contact Monarch. But the electronics didn't work, everything was dead, it didn't work anymore. "What the hell is-"

"Psst, everybody be quiet, will you?" Rodan's roar was still to be heard, but underneath a very high tone. He was slowly getting louder, everyone was fasting to their ears, it was now extremely painful, Rodan's roar also changed from an aggressive, loudness to a whimper.

And then it was quiet for a short moment in the tent, everyone looked at each other with big eyes. "Is it over?"

**THOOOM**

Suddenly a violent shock wave hurled the tent and everything in it with the people around, and swept it away. They all krachten into the trees . Shortly one could still hear Rodans screeching, followed by a sting noise, and a very loud squeak.

* * *

**Castel Bravo 16:50**

Mark sipped his coffee while Chen continued her lecture. Maddie watched them secretly in the ventilation shaft, written everything out, listened as well as she could, until it happened.

All of a sudden there was a light shake that made the whole base tremble. Like massive steps. Then it shook the whole base once. Mark and Chen looked at the ceiling and through the room.

"What is that?" One of the students screamed as he clung to his table. "He woke up again?" "What do you mean?" A student asked.

Then another strong bump came. Mark fell to the ground, two tables flew over, the sound of Godzillas roaring could be heard. But this also shook Maddie. She didn't try to be scared, but then the shock pushed her in the direction of the grid. She was thrown into the room where everyone screeched for a moment. Mark turned, and stared at her.

"Maddie? What are you doing here? "Eh-" Then the alarm went off. "Code Red this isn't an exercise, Code Red this isn't an exercise." The students all looked at each other with their eyes wided. "Go back to your shelters, Chen we go to the control room and Maddie, you come too."

He said that in a very strict tone, she knew she'd get in a lot of trouble. She quickly packed her bag and papers and ran to the control room with her father and Chen.

While they were running Mark prayed, _"Please don't say it will happen again."_

* * *

**Control room Castel Bravo**

It was a chaos, the base was still shaking, the alarm went on. Those who were not needed should retreat to the shelters, this was not an exercise.

Godzilla was in uproar again, like a few months ago. Such a thing was not allowed to happen again, everyone hoped it at least.

Mark and Chen ran in, Maddie went after Mark. Stanston looked over at her, _"What did you do now,"_ he thought. Mark grabbed Maddie by the arm and put her on a chair on the right next to a control panel.

"You stay here and don't touch anything, understand?" She just gave a quiet "Yes." of herself. Mark nodded and turned to Stanston.

"What happened?" "I don't know, slept like a baby and then suddenly boom, all values go up and he gets pissed off."

"Weapons aiming?" "Yes, just in case." "Where is the Argo?" He looked over to Stanston with a very worried look. "Near Alaska, near Scylla, Colonel Foster says nothing has changed there."

"Well, keep the shields down." "Okay, this time the beer or what?" Stanston wasn't comfortable, although he knew it was necessary.

He looked over again to Maddie staring into the air. At least that's what he thought.

She looked through the thick pane of glass that held the sea back. It was almost completely dark, only the light of the spotlights released for a few meters of visibility. She imagined how this icy dark cold would be, how he could survive down there.

Stanston pushed Mark. "Hm?" "What happened?" "What do you mean?" "I mean with Maddie" he whispered. Mark looked over his shoulder to make sure no one could hear. "I caught her listening to my lecture. She has everything exactly documented."

"And that angers you?" "Of course, I-"

The room trembled again, everyone stared frightened at the glass wall, full of dark ocean. And then a blue light shone that conferred the room in a slight blue light. Then it went out again, and on again, and off. It flickered until the Alpha appeared himself.

He swam slowly through the water, carefully upwards. With a grim look at the base. Something had upset him.

"It's like back then." Stanston said. "But that's impossible, Ghidroha is dead." Chen said, whispering as Godzilla came closer.

"Hopefully he also sees this time that we are no danger, nobody makes any sudden movement."

Godzilla looked around and now also stared through the glass wall that separated the sea, only he was on the other side. He looked at this room because several of these little creatures were in it. And looked at one exactly.

The light was still flickering, but it was now a different rhythm, and he was making a kind of quiet noise which didn't sound threatening. "What's going on?" one of the soldiers next to them asked. "I don't know, the big one relaxes, his heartbeat goes down, as well as the sound waves."

While Stanston compared the data, and everyone else was too distracted, Maddie decided something. She looked over at Mark, who wasn't paying attention, and stood out of her chair. She slowly sneaked under a table not to be noticed.

She slowly crept past them while the others got the data, or stared at the titan in shock. He now remained in his position, only his tail moved even stronger to give him lift. For being known as an agressive monster he almost looked peacfull right now, she couldn't explain it how though.

His gaze was still on that small glass wall, at least for him it was small. Maddie was now closer to the glass wall as she squatted under a table, fortunately no one did noticed.

She looked at him again, this huge being, almost Divine. It looked threatening and at the same time peaceful and yet he had an ice-cold look. This look crossed briefly with her.

It ran cold over her shoulder, she trembled briefly, he looked at her, she literally felt it. She felt fear and respect, he was truly the king of monsters.

But suddenly her face turned red as he turned his head briefly, now staring more clearly in her direction. Mark, Chen and Stanston, none of them paid attention to what was happening, but were all just curious about the data they would collect.

Maddie, however, still squatted under the table, with her slightly red cheeks, and the gaze averted by Godzilla. Her back was still cold, she now had goose bumps, but it didn't feel quite so... dangerous anymore.

She took a deep breath once and looked over to the others, they wouldn't notice anything at the beginning, she closed her eyes for a moment, slipped under tables and stood up, her gaze on Godzilla further on and his on her.

A soldier a few meters away looked at her, confused and shocked, he didn't know what was going on. Why was there all of a sudden a girl standing next to the glass?

She takes several steps forward, no one notices at first, only Godzilla's sounds intensified. But then Mark noticed in the field of vision how Maddie goes even closer to the glass. His greatest fear began to form, he couldn't take what he saw, he started trembling.

"Maddie?" He says, in a panic voice. _"It's all okay."_ She thinks so herself. She stretched out her hand and pressed it against the cold glass wall. She feels the vibrations coming from it, and Godzilla, came a bit closer.

Mark panicked as the others watched in horror. "Girl, get away from there, it's too dangerous!" Stanston shouted, no reaction.

She breathed in briefly again, slowly, she looked down on the floor again. Godzilla came a little closer, about 20 meters away.

"Maddie, what are you doing?" Chen said, her glances quickly hectically alternating between Godzilla and Maddie.

She looked up again, now staring directly into Godzilla. He made a slow, downward sound. Her breath stopped for a moment, she always wanted to experience something like that, to be so close to one of the greatest Titans.

"Madison!" Mark called. She had this memory in her head again, Antarctica... the dragon, these three heads... her mother.

Mark did it, he had to get her out of there, she just stood there staring at Godzilla.

* * *

_"No, don't." Those memories came high again, China, Antarctica, Boston. The dragon, these three heads, eyes just full of evil._

_"I love you." "Mom!" She had sacrificed herself to save them. It shouldn't have ended like this._

_The dragon, he stared at her, he was looking for the Orca. He stared directly at her. "Oh Shit."_

_He tries to shoot at her. She runs away the next moment._

* * *

Mark runs away from the controllpad, straight to her, but Stanston stops him. "What are you doing?!" "One stupid move and your daughter will be surrounded by the icy sea, with all of us."

He pulls on him not to let him go, Godzilla might feel threatened by such jerky movements, and attack. They could never win such a fight.

Maddie's breath and heartbeat got stronger

* * *

_She ran as fast as she could, the lightning was right behind her, they would just pulverize her. It was so close, Ghidorah could locate her, the Orca was trapped in her arm. She ran out of the building before he completely destroyed it._

_She ran a few more yards, she felt weaker, the heat was bothering her, the rain whipped her against the face._

_Ghidorah, his right head saw her, he turned to this little creature, this ant, who questioned his rule._

_Maddie looked up, took the Orca, and threw it over a ledge to Ghidorah, who immediately stepped on it._

_She looked down as the orca was still making few noises, and this huge claw stood in front of her. Then she heard something, it sounded like a storm was brewing, she looked up, Ghidorah's necks forming flashes inside of them._

_He stared directly at her, he would kill her for the stupidity she started. She screamed, in fear and panic, she would die._

_But then it briefly became silent, a blue light appeared and a gigantic flame appeared. Maddie's ears rang, everything sounded so suppressed all at once._

**_Boom._ ** _But then she felt steps. **Boom.** The earth trembled. **Boom.** She breathed fast, it could only be one thing, she slowly turned around. **"Skreeeeeeeooognh."** Godzilla roared directly at Ghidorah._

_Maddie began to smile, there was hope, she was saved. He roared again to make it clear that it would be the final fight between the two._

_The Argo and several jets flew over Maddie's head and fired several missiles at Ghidorah, pulling her head down at this big explosion._

* * *

She just stood there, did nothing. Was like rooted in a kind of trance of her trauma. Mark managed to tear himself away and ran towards Maddie. Godzilla kept staring at her, but she hardly registered anything.

"Mark wait!" But he was faster and grabbed Maddie by the arm and pulled her away. She woke up, looked around. "Dad?" "Maddie, now-"

But then Godzilla opened his gigantic mouth, he could have almost squashed the space they where into one bite with it and roared off. **„Rooooooggaaarrrr."** It was extremely loud, despite the fact that the sound was muffled under water. Godzilla was now about ten meters in front of them. Everyone had to cover their ears.

Maddie stared up with a face full of fear, and screamed, as Mark was with her to the floor a lot, he held her tight.

But Godzilla stopped. It became very quiet, no one made a sound. Godzilla was now more aggressive again, illuminating the whole ditch. He now stared down at Maddie and Mark, she breathed very fast, she panicked.

Godzilla made that deep, descending sound again. He ejected air bubbles. Slowly and with caution, he swam backwards before turning back into the depths of the ocean.

A sigh of relief went through the room. "Wait," Stanston said it wasn't the first time he would scare them. He checked the signals. "And what do you see Rick," Chen asked. "He seems to retreat again, the rates are going down again. He seems to calm down."

Maddie still breathed fast and stared at the glass wall. Mark also, but turned his gaze to Maddie.

* * *

**17:00 Castel Bravo, Quarters**

Both were not happy, Maddie already knew about what to expect. Mark dragged her through the passage. They were at Quarter 731, He literally shoved her in.

It was a rather small room with two beds and a small living room. She immediately sat down on her bed. Mark slammed the door behind him. "What were you doing there?" He was angry, understandable somehow.

She turned her face away from him, stared at the wall next to her. "Not only did you sneak into my course without authority, squeezing yourself into the ventilation, which was neither safe nor smart. Moreover, almost everyone on this base has been endangered do to your fault."

She didn't look at him, only looked angrily into the air. "Maddie, that you are allowed to be here at all has been a unique opportunity." He went to a phone on the wall and picked up the phone. "I'm going to make some calls now. You're going to boarding school tomorrow, away from all this."

"No!" She screamed. He turned to her. She got up from bed with clenched fists. "I will stay here." "Maddie-" "No, now I'm talking." Her face swelled red.

"YOU just don't want me to follow in Mom's footsteps. But I want to stay with Monarch, I want to help protect people from the monsters out there."

Mark put the receiver back. "Maddie, Ema-" "Mom!" "Mom yes... I... you're the only thing I have left, I don't want the same thing to happen to you." "She has stood up for all of us!" "She wouldn't if she hadn't awakened the Titans in the first place." "She wanted..." Maddison had tears in her eyes. "She wanted to make the world a better place, the way Andrew would have wanted it."

She cried. Both were just standing there staring at each other, Mark sighed, "You're leaving tomorrow." Maddie said nothing and sobbed briefly. "I'm not losing another part of my family to these monsters."

She walked up to the door and before slamming it, she said. "Then you already have."

* * *

**Castel Bravo 17:54 landing field**

She was at the top of a viewing area, the sun was setting, clouds were rising, she was leaning down on a railing overlooking the sea. The waves today were calm, but it was quite cool. She hung down a bit from that railing, had her headphones on and tried to calm down. The swooshing of the sea could be heard in the background, but without seabirds.

Normally there were some seabirds at the landing place, but after Godzilla woke up, they had all flown out. It was amazing how nature sometimes reacted to the Titans.

And she wanted to be a part of it, to work with Monarch, to live with them. It was the only way to survive successfully, for both sides. She had had enough basic experience, far beyond that, had managed to stop Ghidorah's plan, even with severe aftereffects.

She also felt guilty somehow. Her mom had convinced her that everything would go well if they slowly woke up the Titans. It wasn't. It all went wrong.

But already in Mexico it was clear that it should not be the way it she wanted, she had awakened Rodan much too early, many people died. She felt guilty for not being able to prevent it.

But not only the death of humans but also of Titans, that's why she didn't feel well either. She was there when Mothras was born, they had waited a long time for it. It was impressive, beautiful, for only being a larva.

But for Ema it had been almost nothing more than a test if the Orca was running. And through that, they indirectly killed Mothra. She had even helped her mother wake Ghidorah up, and because of him Mothra sacrificed herself in the fight against him with Godzilla.

She was afraid down there when Godzilla was. It wasn't just that she wanted to thank him, she wanted to apologize. But again she knew, something like this could never happen. For him she is just a tiny dot in the landscape.

She inhaled deeply once more, trying to control her flow of thoughts. She looked out at the sea. "One day, I will help."

* * *

**Castel Bravo Control Room**

Rick was just looking at the footage, including some old ones. It was always nice, like a live action movie but private. Well, a little bit. He had just got himself a bag of chips, there wasn't much to do, except to look at the material according to order.

He was about to take the chips again when Chen took the pack. "Hey!?" "Oh, shut up." She grinned.

"You know how expensive they are here on the high seas?" "I thought you always bought them from the mainland?" She sat down on a table next to him and looked at the pictures. "Yes, that's my last pack, too." "Oh, I'm sorry." "No, take it, but next time ask, yes?"

The two looked at the material and discussed a little when Mark came in. He was exhausted and fasting with his hands in his face. "And what was it like?"

"hmm" He gave the answer. "So bad as *go out here, leave me alone* or as *I hope you are eaten by Godzilla*?" "Such a mixture of both, does anyone have coffee?" Stanston shook his head. "Godzilla's little surprise turned the coffee machine over, let's see how it's going to be the next few days for all the caffeine junkys here."

Chen laughed briefly, noticed something during the recording. "Hey, check out the security cameras." She points to a view from the right corner of the room.

Maddie just crawled out of the table. "Clever Girl." "I don't mean that, look where he's looking."

"Who?" Mark looked confused at the screen, neither he nor Stanston understood what she meant. Chen rolled his eyes and switches the recording to slow. "Look at Godzilla."

And indeed, his eyes and head moved with Maddie.

As she got closer to the glass, he was also a little closer. "That can't have anything to do with her." Mark refused to think such a thing. "I don't know, maybe the lizard was interested in your teenage daughter." Chen hit him in the side. It wasn't strong, but it was supposed to work. "Ouch, what?" "Don't be so silly. So what is simply unlikely, but again-" "Again what?" Mark seemed to get nervous.

"About reporting from Skull Island, you may know from the First Expedition what Kong had done." The two looked at each other insecure. "Let's put aside fun guys, Godzilla is a giant radioactive lizard, lizards aren't like gorillas." "And how do you know that?" "uhm..." She answered Stanston, who now seemed convinced of his own joke.

"Look at the shots as Mark Maddie moves away." "Okay, wait, that's it."

And indeed, as soon as Mark pulled her away, Godzilla started roaring. When she got scared and screamed, he stopped shortly after. "How is this even supposed to work? He couldn't hear her." „But body language is very important for animals. Play forward again". Stanston played forward, meanwhile all three became nervous, it couldn't be true what they were keeping on the trail.

"Looks at the beginning it's Godzilla's threatening gesture, the same as with Ghidorah, but then it changes as soon as he came closer to us. We had never seen such signals before." "And what do you think it is?" Mark asked while Chen was thinking. "Now I see too, his eyes follow her everywhere." "But how is that possible, I mean, it can only be pure coincidence. Maybe he saw her and found her interesting in a restrained way, animals often just watch something when people do something strange in their eyes."

Mark didn't want to think it, there had to be a logical explanation. Mark had so much on his mind in the meantime, could he see them as prey? Just watch? Was it all coincidental and just looked like that? No, that couldn't be true.

"Mark, I know you're a little worried-" "A little? She's all I have left and now this monster is after her."

"I don't think it's like you think Mark," Chen said, with a very troubled voice, she had compared bioacoustics to other species and how they passed on certain signals.

"If I'm not mistaken, which would be the first time I hope to, the signals indicate a courtship behavior."

Mark just stood there, he barely moved. "No, that can't never be." "Are you afraid that your daughter already has the first boy running after her."

Chen gave Stanston a very poisonous look again. "No, it's more like it's a 120-meter lizard."

Mark shook his head, he didn't feel well, not with such news. "Maddie's flying away tomorrow." "I don't think she'll like it, but it's safer for everyone."

Chen looked at Mark, he looked like he was scared. Chen grabbed his hand, stood next to him and whispered him in his ear. "Take it easy, now it would be unwise to make Maddie and everyone else worried." Mark nodded.

The two had gotten closer over the last few months. Chen tried to help Mark wherever he could.

"We should examine the tapes again, Ilene you go to the archives, maybe we already have similar records, Mark you look at the recordings, I compare them with Godzilla's acoustics. Well, let's go."

Chen nodded Mark to who also nodded back. She went out of the room, the archives were down one floor. It could take a while, there were a lot of old files down there, even if they were a little easier to find with the computer.

Mark and Stanston stood right there and compared the recordings with the acoustics, something had to give more insight into this phenomenon. But Stanston couldn't help but chat in between.

"So you and Ilene, how long has this been going on?" Mark looked at him confused, actually he was a bit shocked, even if it was obvious. "Well, what do you mean?" He tried to deny it.

"Come on, I can see that, I was young once you know." "Very funny, now um, for about two 3 months?"

"So long already wow, and?" "And what?" "How are you doing with it?" "Good, good, we understand each other very well, a good team can be said that way."

"Aha and had you already...?" "Wrong question, concentrate on the lizard." Stanston looked at the screen again, nothing was to be noticed in the meantime.

"Well okay, and have you already told Maddie?" "What God No, I don't want to know how she reacts." Mark shook his head again, he really didn't want that, „Even though it's been some time now, Maddie wouldn't get over it."

"Because she probably would think that you want to replace Ema with her? "Since when did you get so annoying Rick?"

"Since then, the coffee's out." He grinned and Mark also had to pull a little smile. "But yeah you're right, I don't want her to see Ilene like that, no one can replace Ema."

Mark rewound the audio acoustics, along with the recordings, nothing new seemed to have appeared.

"How did it actually come to that?" „Well, it was at my welcome party a few months ago, we just sat there at the end and talked." He smiled, Stanston noticed he was doing better.

"And about what?" "Oh, you know, work, how it goes, family-."

Mark didn't realize it at first, he didn't want it.

But the ground among them began to tremble again, the lights began to flicker. He had woken up again. Stanston held on to his table while Mark was thrown away from his legs.

He could support himself and had no problems. He immediately jumped up again and rushed to Stanston. He was just shaking his head with his eyes wide open. "What was that?" "The big one woke up again and the way I see it..." He went silent when he looked at the monitor for the location. "What do you see?!" Mark yelled at him. Stanston calmly said, "He's moving up, accelerating."

Mark stopped breathing, he had to find Maddie immediately.

"Stanston, you find Maddie in the South Corridor, we gotta find her, quick!" "Okay, Barnes? Barnes,coming over here."

Barnes was one of the higher military on the base, he had worked quite closely with Mark, already while Ghidorahs attack.

"We need to find Maddison, take your men and search them all." "Yes sir. Come guys,"

He called out to his men who were also surprised. They all set off, it was a race against time.

The group ran together before they split up. "Do you have any idea where she might be, where she likes to be?"

"Ehh, either in her room, in the canteen or on the roof." Barnes took the lead. "Okay, Dr. Russell, you, Stanston and I go to the roof, you two go to the cafeteria , and you three run to the cafeterias, let's go."

They had walked a few meters, then one of the soldiers asked Stanston, "Why do we have to find the girl so urgently?" "Because maybe all hell will break loose if we don't."

* * *

**Landing platform 18:03**

Maddie also noticed the shock. She almost fell off the railing, but was still able to hold on tight enough. But when it was over she slipped and banged her head against a metal pipe.

Her back of the head hurt extremely, she cursed and bit her lips. "Ahh Shit." She touched her head, she had a bump, but thank God no scar. However, it rang in her ears, the vision was also blurred for a moment. She stood up slowly filling herself very dizzy and walked slowly forward.

As her vision improved again and her ears could hear properly again, she realized something was wrong.

It had become cooler, very much cooler she had a hoodie on and felt like she was freezing. The waves had become much stronger, towering almost 15 meters or higher. Slowly rain started, she looked down at the floor don't get more into her face, so she could see better.

The alarm went off, but Maddie just stared into the sea, she felt so strange again, almost in a trance again, but another rumbling woke her up.

She shook her head, closed her eyes, she had a headache. She looked over to the other side, where the door to the elevator was.

All she had to do was walk over the place, which she did. Very calm and slow, though. She was afraid she would fall down. Despite the real danger, she remained calm and cautiously walked down the stairs.

She strolled slowly across the square and when she was about in the middle it trembled again, but differently, louder and repeated, like footsteps.

The drop of water whipped around her ears as the wind grew stronger. The waves became much stronger.

And again the trembling. **Boom.** It was right there with her. **Boom.** Her heart pounded like wild, her breath became faster. **Boom.** She looked up the right side of the platform.

A huge, dark Scaly Hand reached forward and crushed all the pipes and the railing, pushing it down. A second hand reached up from the floods and bent a tower, Maddie ran forward, screaming as the tower barely missed.

Sparks jumped around, all the lights went out, something exploded. Maddie was now standing about 20 meters from the edge, right between the two hands.

She turned around.

He slowly climbed up, lifting himself up with his full strength in his arms. His huge black upper body, which was placed with many scales.

Maddie trembled with fear. She slowly lifted her head up, Godzilla looked down on her.

It wasn't even his full size and yet it was as big as a house and although the former drilling platform was very big, it could barely keep up with Godzilla's weight and size.

He was about to hip down at the water and had clawed his feet into the dense outer skin of the base.

He puffed, ejecting warm air that flew right into Maddie's face. She was still breathing fast, almost hyperventilating. She looked into his eyes, glowing blue. He blinked briefly and twitched his right cheek.

A scar was there from Ghidorah's fight. It would remind him of that forever.

He lowered his head, down to her. He was barely 10 meters away from her, closer than it was good. Maddison didn't try to scream, she bit her lips so hard. She had to remember what she had learned. Godzilla reacts aggressively or passively to screaming. He could perceive it as a sign of weakness or threat and could attack without problems.

At first she wasn't sure if he even knew if she was there. However, everyone else who was on top, had already fled when the shock came down. Now that he was even closer, he could smell her. She thought while still staring into his eyes to delay some time.

The best idea she had was to move slowly towards the elevator that would lead straight down. However, the rain subsided, which could make it all the more dangerous as he could now smell more accurately where she was.

Nevertheless, she slowly turned around to see if the elevator was still there. Luckily Godzilla Hand had landed just a few meters in front of the it. The surface was free, she had to try.

She walked very slowly one step backwards, head down, she didn't want to look him in the eyes anymore.

She took another step, it went well. But when she took another step, Godzilla ejected a humming growl. She lifted her head slightly upwards, the hot breath Godzilla struck through her face and hair again. She began to sweat and tremble slightly. She breathed in and out deeply, she had to calm down.

But then her whole body pulled together, it ran cold over her back as the elevator door opened behind her and she heard a male voice scream "Maddison!

Godzilla turned his head there in a flash. Maddison turned around fast, too. She saw her father, stiff as a hammer, frozen with fear, looking up at Godzilla. Stanston and Barnes stand behind him.

"Dad? Dad, get away from there." "Maddie?" "You have to be calm." She tried not to be so loud, but Godzilla turned his head back to her.

"Maddison on three, you run over to me, okay?" He tried to sound quiet so she wouldn't get more scared. "That won't work." "But it will, look at me." She shook her head briefly, but then looked over at him.

"So on three?" Maddie nodded. She counted off, "One." Godzilla exhaled deeply again, the hot air alternating with the cold made her slowly dizzy. "Two," Godzilla bent down even deeper, but slowly lost under his feet.

"three," she stormed away. She ran a few meters, she was maybe 20 meters away from Mark. But then Godzilla raised his hand, spread his fingers, and reached down a few meters before Mark. The claws braided themselves into the concrete, a big shock was going on, Mark and Maddison fell from her legs, the others could still hold on to the elevator.

"What the hell is that lizard doing?" Barnse cursed as he kicked his head on the roof of the elevator. Stanston didn't answer, he just watched something incomprehensible happen.

Maddie had hit the ground with her head on, thank God no wound again, but she felt very dizzy. When she got up, however, she saw Godzilla's fingers around her. He had her locked in a cage, out of his hand. Mark slowly stood up and looked over at his daughter. "Maddison!" He ran to her, but it was too late. Maddison looked anxiously at the floor as Godzilla pulled his hand away, tore away a piece of concrete and raised his hand. She felt it being lifted several feet into the air, but then everything around her darkened all at once, Godzilla had closed his hand, no light came through.

However, she heard the sea from outside, a thunderstorm approached, the howling of wind and thunder of lightning and her father screamed for her, several times.

But then she noticed how it all fell silent. Everything sounded so muffled. She realized quickly where she was: under water. How deep, however, was unclear to her. What she knew was that Godzilla's hand had closed her completely and no water was entering. But she didn't know if she had enough oxygen.

She began to cry, she knew she was going to die. She screamed for her dad, for her mother.

She quickly realized, however, that nobody would come to help her. She squatted down, sobbed while she noticed that she was becoming more and more tired and tired.

Her eyes closed, the darkness remained, she felt the hard, wet and cold concrete under her, that Godzilla took with her.

Mark was on top of the platform. He could only watch as Godzilla kidnapped his daughter and slowly disappeared into the floods, his back spines still above water for some time.

Now the monster had taken him the last of his family. He fell to his knees and hit the concrete with his fist, breaking his finger. He cried out her name, but all was in vain. "Nooooooo!"


	2. Returning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison is gona, taken away by Godzilla, somewhere were he is not the ruler.  
> Mark has only one goal now, to find and rescue his daughter, and he get's help by a suprising return.

**Chapter 2: Returning**

She felt the cold wind on her, heard the sea and a strange humming. She was partly awake, partly still sleeping. She opened her eyes very carefully, raising her head slightly. It was night, but not completely dark as the moon reflected on the water surface.

She did not know where she was, just sensed she was lying on something rough. A shadow slid over her from behind and a new wind came up, but much warmer. Slowly she felt her joints hurt, she just wanted to keep sleeping. She put her head down again, her eyes closed immediately. There was another humming, but it was much gentler than before.

Again, she sank into her dreams and slept peacefully.

Meanwhile he continued to swim, straight to the island in front of them. He was also tired and yet he had to go there now. A few kilometers to go, he still had to make it, he was not used to not using his shortcuts.

He swam carefully so she would not wake up.

* * *

_The earth trembled; fire burned. Everything was destroyed, nothing was left, everything was gone. The roar of the monsters could be heard from afar._

_People helped other people and tried to seek shelter. Someone picked her up, took her in her arm and whispered to her, "Everything is going to be all right." She turned around and saw a woman with light brown hair, green eyes. She had tears on her face._

_She says to her "Mommy don't cry". And she hugged her mother, tries to comfort her while she tries to somehow understand what is going on._

_A man with a black and a brown leather jacket is standing in front of them screaming a familiar name "Andrew!" Several times, as often as he could. He looked in everywhere, under all the rubble._

_But then something stomped "Boom" behind them. Everyone turned around, "Look mommy, a monster!" She shouted._

_Truly, a monster. The Titan stomps through a building, it is shattered to dust within a few seconds._

_She stares up, too young to understand everything. He just walks past them, does not even notice anything of their existence._

_He roars loudly, his triumph victorious, his title as king defended again._

**_"ROOOOGAAAAAAAR."_ **

* * *

Madison notices her slowly awakening from her dreams. She feels something soft, grainy and moist under her face. She doesn't want to get up at first, she doesn't feel ready.

But a soft purring awakened her further. Her eyes opened a small gap, her vision is slightly blurred. But she sees the blue measures in front of her eye, the sea. She must have been at a beach, now she noticed the sand. Her right half of her face was covered with it.

She must have been washed up on a beach after Godzilla "kidnapped her". But one small detail caught her eye, there were no seabirds to be heard. It made her suspicious, but Madison thought nothing of it in her half-sleep at first. She turned around; the sun fell in her face. It warmed her after feeling a little cold, but it blinded her too much.

Her hoodie would warm her up fast anyway. Now she did not even think about getting away from this beach, she didn't even know if she was on an island or the mainland.

But Madison noticed something as soon as she turned around, it was obvious. A shadow fell on her, a huge black wall was in front of her, only half a meter or so.

She touched it as she felt it feel rough and scaly, she widened her eyes.

A loud breathing was immediately audible, her heart was pounding so fast again. Maddie sat up and immediately pressed her feet a few meters away sand got thrown against him.

It was Godzilla. He laid right next to her, also asleep. He was gigantic and an impressive figure, even when he was simply resting. Madison stood up; all her clothes covered in sand. She wasn't sure if he had noticed her.

She stayed where she was, trying to stay calm. She took a closer look at him. His head was right in front of her, she must have been somewhere between the head and neck. He was lying on his stomach, with arms and legs laying close. Through his spines he was still well up to 20 to 30 meters high.

With a length of about 119,5 meters, he covered a large area of the quite narrow beach. Maddie looked further up. In front of them were 100 meters big cliffs, on which Moss and other plants were. A few palms were short behind Godzilla before the cliffs went up.

And at the same moment she looked up, she noticed how the ground rumbled slightly, looking over to her right side. Godzilla had raised his tail in the air, which was a normal behavior of him when he woke up. The beach shook briefly as he just dropped it to the ground. Sand was thrown up and flew right into Madison's eyes. She squeaked slightly for a moment and coughed heavily. Immediately she scrubbed all the sand out of her face, not noticing that there was more movement behind her. Godzilla opened his eyes slowly, he blinked a few times, he as well had to get used to the sun. His heavy body sank slightly into the soft sand.

He turned his head slightly towards the sea and saw her a few meters in front of him. He ejected a soft hum, followed by a yawn.

Madison noticed how a strong wind was behind her, but hot with a loud hiss in the background. The sand was still in her hair, but at least mostly from her face.

Madi turned around but she screamed as she saw Godzilla's huge head and his eyes stared directly at her. "No, no, no, please don't, leave me alone."

She stumbled backwards, almost into the sea. She was lucky again; her head just fell on the soft sand.

Godzilla stretched out his arm, which briefly went into the water, causing some small waves.

He pushed his claws through the sand, raising his hand again, directly to Maddie. She breathed hastily again and closed her eyes. But instead of being crushed, she felt the ground moving beneath her, she looked to her right side again. Godzilla had his hand dug like a shovel under the sand she was laying on.

She sat up, looked around a little, he lifted her up while he was doing so, now stretched out his left arm, too, laid her down in front of his head. He lowered Maddie a few feet in front of him, letting her fall to the ground and landing on her back, it luckily didn't hurt at all. She looked to her right shoulder where Godzilla's left arm was. He stretched both arms forward, put the palms of his hands-on top of each other and circled them around her, so to speak. From above, it looked a little like he was hugging someone.

Maddie got up slowly, she turned around once. It was quite unlikely that she would get out of this circle, especially with Godzilla's head directly next to her. She sat down again, crossed her feet, _"take a deep breath"_ she thought to herself. She wiped the last sand off her face, but she still had a lot of it on her clothes, even in her hair, and that was something she hated a lot, it just got everywhere.

She heard a snuffle behind her, but it didn't sound aggressive slowly she turned her head over.

He looked at her again and again gave off this soft hum, but Maddie was too confused, nothing she had ever heard or learned. She did not understand why he kidnapped her, why he had even noticed her.

But then their eyes crossed again. She stared into his huge orange eyes, which looked like flames, and he stared at her with her hazelnut-colored eyes, which were quite small for him. Maddie froze again in all her motion, striked by fear, respect and confusion. However, she felt slowly, if only a little, safer.

So far, he could have just killed her if he wanted to, but what for? It wouldn't do him any good.

He opened his jaw slightly and let another soft sound go. **"Reaarr."** It sounded gentle, but normally Maddie only knew this sound when he took a hit, or something hurt him. Then it got weirder, he smiled, more of a smirk to be exactly. His mouth angles formed as he would express joy or something like that.

Maddie just sat there, confused and not sure what to do now. Then he pushed his head a little closer to her. He was huge, his teeth were half as big as she herself. He pushes his nose towards her, took a deep breather, he smelled her and the scent of a familiar place he was just recently.

She stood up, she felt safe, almost comfortable. Whatever he had in mind; he did not want to kill her. She walked a few steps closer; her feet sank a little, she limped slightly. She felt very weak after all the stress and emotion she felt suddenly.

Madison was right in front of him, in front of his snout. He breathed slowly, in and out again. He looked at her and she at him. As she raised her hand, she touched his nose. His surface was very rough and firm, but warm, unlike she had expected. It was strange, somehow, she felt connected with him, as they both could understand each other.

She laughed, overwhelmed by her feelings. Maddie was happy, maybe after Serizawa she was the only person ever so close to Godzilla. It felt like it did in China, at Mothras temple, only much stronger.

He was not a destructive monster, no he was a living being who was aware of his existence, thought about it and defended himself.

Every time Godzilla made a sound, she could clearly feel the vibrations going into her hand. They were deep sounds, from the throat.

He puffed briefly, Maddie was blown back slightly, she had to laugh again. Godzilla also smiled briefly again.

It was quite a beautiful moment, but she felt everything pinching and wiggling in her stomach. A slight rumbling came out of it. "Oh crap." She said Godzilla looked at her confused.

"Don't worry, I'm just hungry." She thought about it suddenly. Did she go crazy? Why did she suddenly talk to him, he could not understand her. It sorts of felt a bit with a pet, but also not that, and even if so, who would be the pet here?

She had already been worried; she had heard many bad stories about shipwrecked people who simply went mad or got sick because they had been alone for so long. But thank God she wasn't, at least for now.

Godzilla lifted his head slightly, she could see more scars on his neck, also from Ghidorah. He reached to the side with his right hand, which opened the circle around her. She briefly looked out at the Open Beach, perhaps she could run away.

But where to? He had come after her anyway, but he probably wouldn't trust her either anymore if she did that. No, she was saved with him that was sure now, only why was the question that bugged her.

While she was thinking about what to do next, she heard something hit on the sand. She quickly turned around and saw... a coconut?

Then another one fell off, shattered and another one. Almost half a dozen or so fell off. Maddison shook her head; it couldn't just fly from the sky.

She had to squeal for a moment when another nut fell in front of her feet, almost hitting her. Then she noticed the noise of leaves above her, which was much louder than normal. Confused, she looked up, Godzilla had torn a palm tree out of the ground. He shook it with his Mighty Jaw, but held it also carefully so that he would not bite it through and let the tree fall on her.

She shook her head. "Do you understand me?" An absurd idea, but she didn't find any other idea, he must've recognized that she was hungry. But Godzilla ignored her call and throw the rest of the palm tree into the sea. Madi's stomach growled again. Whether he understood her or not, she had to eat.

She looked at the fruits, a few had been slightly broken, so they could be opened easily. But when she took one in her hand, she poured coconut water on her shirt. It went down all her clothes and they got full of it, not very pleasant to feel. "Oh, damn it." Godzilla turned his head back to her and putted it back on the floor.

A little annoyed, though she couldn't do more than shrug her shoulders. "That my shirt is wet is my smallest problem now."

Slowly and carefully she removed the inside of the coconut, not necessarily her favorite food, but what else should she ate now, there wasn't really an option.

Godzilla stirred his throat and yawned, hot air came out again. It was interesting for her that his breath didn't smell unpleasant or anything else. Probably because he didn't really eat anything and fed of radiation for the most part. Something she didn't really think about at all, if she could get anything from being around him. Although it has been theorized that most of the energy is within him and gets barely released outside of him.

She continued to look to him while he continued to stretch his body. He was exhausted, the long swim had made him tired, even if he were under water for a long time, mostly he used shortcuts within the earth, but this time he could not use them, to not endanger her it was a very long way he had swam and luckily without anyone noticing.

Nevertheless, he should not be underestimated, he was still a strong fighter.

He slowly straightened up, supported himself with his two hands. His feet dug deeper into the sand, he bent forward, raised his head higher, balanced his weight with his tail. He now stood upright in front of her, 119,5 meters, approximately.

He looked down at her. She didn't eat any more but looked up in amazement and nothing else, it was like staring up to a god, a true titan. He made another sound and moved slowly towards the sea. Maddie jumped up and shouted after him, "Hey wait, don't leave me back." He returned another sound. Slowly he plunged into the floods, but did not swim away, but circled around the beach again and again within a certain radius.

 _"I'd rather stay here."_ She continued to eat her coconut as she saw Godzilla back plates slowly swim along the surface of the water. Some time passed, she wasn't sure what he was doing, probably gathering energy or warming up. However, it slowly got too hot for her, the sun was shining on her head, it felt like someone was lighting a fire in her hair.

She looked behind, at the palm trees there was still a group of trees behind, maybe they were little cool spots in some of the shade.

Tired, she strolled over, took one of the coconuts with her and laid down under a palm tree, it felt immediately cooler. She yawned, looked further at the sea, where Godzilla now seemed to be floating in the water. She smiled. _"If Dad saw this...I think everyone would want to see this somehow."_ With what had happened, she turned everything they knew about the Titans upside down. All the knowledge Monarch had been gathering was maybe all wrong, maybe their thinking of what these creatures truly are was completely different then what they thought.

Her eyelids became heavier, she felt sleepy, all this stuff that was happening made her exhausted.

But then she felt something swishing next to her, she looked around: nothing was there. Then suddenly something rammed into the sand. She covered her eyes so as not to get blinded again. What was that?

She shook her head, wiped sand off her arm. She got very scared as she realized what was happening but held her hand in front of her mouth so as not to attract attention towards her.

To her left, a root had suddenly drilled itself into the ground, at least she thought so for a moment. Then the "root" pulled up, and a few meters further it rammed back into the ground. Maddie bit her teeth; she wasn't allowed to scream, if she wanted to survive. She exhaled slowly and inhaled, not moving a bit. Slowly she looked up, this being had several legs, it was a kind of huge spider, she was directly above her.

Several meters high, almost in the tops of the palm tree. Maddie recognized it, it was a Mother Long legs, a huge almost extinct Arachnid species.

It had 6 legs, and a pair of legs was reshaped to crab like claws.

Unfortunately to Maddie, her hand pushed against a tree as she tried to slowly move away, a bad idea as it quickly turned out.

The Mother Long legs slowly turned around with her legs. Maddie stopped her breath, didn't move a bit. She sweated and trembled, she heard the swooshing of the treetops, the crunching of the exoskeleton as the monster moved. But then the spider snatched forward with its claws down to the ground, Maddie could barely dodge.

She immediately ran off towards the beach, the spider needed time to turn around. Meanwhile Maddie had ran in front of the sea, was close to the water and looked around where she should run, on the left of her the beach went on, on the right it ended, where the sea led with a river into a valley.

She heard a squeaking noise behind her, she turned around. 5 of the Mother Long legs, stomped towards out of the palm forest, her only option was to run as fast as she could. The giant spiders, however, were much bigger and had a larger step size, and caught up with her without an issue.

Maddie ran down the beach, ran around a corner where it continued. The spiders were just behind her and were close to almost catching up with Madison. Her heart pounded like wild, she breathed extremely fast, she sweated strongly, the sun didn't make it easier, yet she had to keep as much distance between them.

But then she stumbled over a stone. As she fell to the ground, she felt a pulling pain in her ankle. She screams, she had possibly sprained it.

Laying on the ground she pulled herself across the beach, with pain in her foot and all her strength in her arms.

She looks behind her, the Mother Long legs were just around the corner. They make squeaky noises, flicking with their claws. Maddie closes her eyes, _"That's it."_ Was her last thought, she doesn't want to think about it any further.

But then she feels an enormous amount of water catch her and flush several meters over the beach. She coughs out water, took a deep breath once... and notices the huge shadow that slides in front of her.

The spiders make panic noises, in front of her he stands, Godzilla. He roared at the crawlers; Godzilla is almost 10 times bigger than them.

And without hesitation he starts to tear them into pieces. First, he stamps on two, their green blood splashed out like from a water bomb. The three others immediately took the flight but were too slow.

He grabs the two front ones with his hands. One he crushes with his bare hand, the other he bites in two and spits out the rest.

The last one sprints forward into the small forest, but then he turned around in a flash, Maddie felt a huge gust of wind coming as he swung his tail.

He whipped the spider away; it flew several hundred meters through the air before it hit the ocean. No living creature survived such power.

 **"Raaauuur!"** He roared angrily afterwards, saliva and green blood flew out of his mouth, he threw away the remaining spider parts he was holding in his hands. They also clapped on the water and drove away like logs in a river.

He then wiped the rest of the green blood off his lips, shook his head and ejected an angry sniff.

Maddie just watched; she was shocked. A wind came up, blowing her hair into her face. Only for a short moment the view was obscured, she widened her eyes again in awe. Godzilla's tail flew over her as he turned to her, looking down to the one he just saved. The sun disappeared and it became cloudier, in the distance a thunderstorm brewed. He bent down to her and sniffed at her.

He noticed that she was hurt. Maddie looked at him, "I, um." She didn't know what to say. But he turned his head away again, straightened up and looked towards the sea, the oncoming storm that would hit the island. Nothing that would hurt him, but her for sure.

He noticed a strange thing in the water, it was something small, maybe a bit smaller then Maddie. Immediately he grabbed it with his hands and caught it with his left hand.

He fished something out of the water, Maddie couldn't see what. At first she thought he wanted to drink water, but when the water slipped through his hands and he reached it down to her, she saw a backpack on the palm of his hand, it was hers probably, how had even noticed it was a mystery, probably the fact he recognized it as she had it on her.

"What the heck?" She stood up but could not walk properly. She hobbled to his hand, he noticed she couldn't come up.

So, he turned his hand around and threw the backpack down to her. "Thank you." She called up to him.

She took a closer look at the backpack. It was in fact her backpack that was with her on top of the platform. "Did he take it with him when we got here? Or was it washed up by accident? It's getting weirder and weirder here."

Godzilla watched her with interest as she searched through her backpack like a child waiting for an ice cream. There was relatively little in the backpack. No supplies, no means of communication, but first aid kit and clothes.

She had to change her clothes, not only that she didn't feel comfortable in them, but she could also catch cold, now with the drop in temperature and the feeling of the storm in her neck. First she took off her shoes and socks.

She took out the first aid kit, bandages and an cream. It flashed and rumbled in the distance, Godzilla looked over his shoulder, he made a worried noise.

Maddie gazed up at him, he didn't look happy. When he turned his gaze back to her, she immediately looked down, and finished the bandage on her foot.

It hurt to touch, but not as bad as it did a few minutes ago.

Carefully she took on her socks, then her shoes again, she took off her hoodie, took a T-shirt out of her backpack while stuffing her hoodie in. It was a simple white shirt with quite short sleeves. In the backpack she found pants for hiking, it was much better than with her current jeans. Godzilla looked down all the time, just to see if she was all right. Every now and then he quickly stretched his head up and looked left and right to watch out for danger.

Maddie now wanted to change her clothes but didn't feel very comfortable when Godzilla stared on her, not understanding some privacy.

After she had done that, she tried to walk properly, with not so much success. The leg still hurt too much for her to walk normally. She limped over the beach, dragged her shoes through the sand. Godzilla bent down to her again and stretched out his hand so she could walk up. She looked up at him, nodded thankfully. She limped high on the palm of her hand, sat down in the middle of it. Godzilla lifted her up, closed his fingers slightly, like a kind of basket, so she didn't fall down and held it very close to his chest.

Carefully he stomped over the beach, while Maddie sat in his hand at a height of almost 70 meters and looked around, the storm came closer, in at least an hour it would be wiser to look somewhere hidden, if you weren't 100 meters tall. While Godzilla was simply stomping on, she looked at the storm, heard the rumbling and saw the lightnings

Suddenly she noticed something. A silhouette was in the storm. She narrowed her eyes slightly, she saw wings. One head, no three. Her breath got stuck. She held her hands in front of her eyes, shook her head, "No, no, no, no!" She begged not to see it again. Godzilla stopped; he heard her panicked voice.

He raised his hand closer to his face to see her better. Maddie noticed how she was lifted. She took her hands off her face and immediately saw Godzilla in front. She shook her head and tried to take her eyes off him. He lowered his arm again and went on searching for a save place for them.

Madison thought, she tried to find a solution for the whole thing.

_"I should watch how I get away from here when he lets me go. Apart from the fact that I still must see if this is an island or a mainland. But he protects me, for whatever reason. I shouldn't worry about it, though it's probably the most groundbreaking in all of Monarch's history if I ever come back. At least I am not alone and won't go mad. The Mother Long legs here are strange, only seen on a few islands and alone, but 5 of them? Let's see where he takes me now, maybe to a safe place."_

And Maddie was right with her guess, partly. After about 20 minutes, the storm was almost there, the first few raindrops fell. In front of them was a cave, the cliffs in front of them had now become much higher, about 400 meters estimating. And in this huge stand was a huge dark hole, where even could Godzilla passed through.

He stomped towards the hole, growling angrily as if he could hear something. Maddie looked up at him, he seemed angry. He bared his teeth, roared through the cave, the reverberation extended it even further. She stared inside, slowly getting up. Carefully she balanced on Godzilla's hand. The wind had become stronger, she felt the storm behind her, some drops landed on her.

But she heard something from the cave, a quiet, yet threatening hum.

Godzilla didn't seem to like this, his back plates began to charge slowly, the slow crackle, and a bright blue light appeared on his back. Maddie looks up at him, his eyes flashing blue. He holds his hand lower; Maddie could barely hold on.

He shot straight into the cave, illuminating the whole room, a blue fire spreading throughout the room. Then it became completely dark again and the humming and humming stopped.

Godzilla growled again; the silence was eerie for a short moment.

The thunder of the storm, however, was directly behind them, he dares a step forward, a deeper look inside. Maddie took a step forward, holding on to his index finger.

Suddenly hundreds of things fly out that look like yellow dots. He falls back slightly, visibly surprised and confused. He roared loudly, like a flood, they streamed out. Maddie briefly lost her balance; she almost fell, she just barely held onto him.

Something starts scratching his head, biting and stabbing him. He shook his head and bites the air once. In fact, he caught one of those things, a loud crunch and smacking could be heard. Blue blood dripped out of his mouth, he spat out its body immediately, it tasted awfully again.

Maddie recognizes what those things are. They were huge bees, about the size of Godzilla's hands. Like a wild swarm, hundreds of them fly out, orbiting Godzilla. Like a hurricane, he and Maddie were in the eye of the swarm, Godzilla visibly angry, Maddie scared. Some of them were still burning as they flew, and the dead fell to the ground. The beach was littered with burning bee corpses. Godzilla roared at them, but they all still surrounded him. They didn't care if he might kill a few, as long as they were a mass, they seemed bigger than him.

Maddie was afraid, Godzilla was strong, but if 100 of them attacked, the bees could surely catch her. But his last roar was no attempt to scare them away, it was a warning signal, he saw through the tactics of the swarm. His back was charging again. And before the bees could recognize and strike, Godzilla shot directly into the surrounding swarm. With a loud sizzling several dozen fell to the ground. The humming became less, but the bees buzzed aggressively around Godzilla, trying to sting him.

One tries to attack Godzilla's right arm. Maddie felt the fast wind from the side. Godzilla turns his right arm away to keep her save from any attack, but she almost falls out. Just with one of her arms she holds onto his finger and tries her hardest not to let go. He grabs the bee with his left hand and crushes it like nothing.

Madison got scared, she felt no ground under her, as she was hanging with her feet in the air on his hand, as Godzilla continued to fight the insects. Slowly she feels that she felt becoming weaker, all the motion of Godzilla fight consumed all the strength.

 **"Help!"** She screams as loudly as she could, and still even with being so small to him, Godzilla notices her screaming immediately. He turns his hand to the side so that she fell right back in. He closed his hand tighter, but so Maddie could still see out.

More bees came out of the cave, buzzing around him like a whirlwind. But then suddenly the swarm settled down and flew out to sea. They retreated, buzzing several hundred meters in the sky in a circle. The plan to pretend to be bigger had failed.

Madison found it strange, but then she heard something. A much deeper hum came out of the cave. Godzilla stretched his head in the direction of the sound, bared his teeth and shoved out a short roar. **"Roogar!"**

Like a bolt of lightning, something jumped out of the cave, creating a shock wave as it hit Godzilla. He stumbled a few steps back; Maddie was literally shaken within his fist.

She shook her head, felt a pulling pain was in it, took her hand away. Blood was on the pack of her head it, now she had gambled away her luck.

A loud squeak could be heard, she froze with shock, slowly she looked up.

A huge bee, probably about 30 meters or so tall, had sat down on his head and bit and scratched him now, tried to sting him. It was the queen, and she had clawed his face.

He shook his head so hard that the bee gave way, he grabbed her by the back with his left hand and threw her aside.

The few seconds he needs only to bend down quickly, he puts Maddie down to a palm group to fight better. She limps behind the tree as fast as she can. She squatted down and prayed not to be crushed.

She stared up at the two colossuses, but it was clear that the queen had little chance. She once breathed deeply, calmly and slowly, trying not to panic again. The storm was now closer, the rain became stronger as well, a few drops hit her again. She crossed her arms and watched Godzilla fight.

The queen's wings quickly flapped up and down, she made hissing noises. Godzilla kept her distance for the time being. He didn't want to fight long, Maddie was down, he had to watch where he stepped.

However, the queen attacked first, just as planned. She extended her sting and relied on her speed.

But Godzilla had expected it, he turns around lightning fast, a huge shock wave assumes from his tail, Maddie keeps herself just on her legs, the wind was extremely strong. Godzilla hit the queen bee with full force, splitting her exoskeleton into pieces, blue blood came out of wounds and was thrown several hundred meters over the beach.

It collided with the soft sand and a huge cloud of dust briefly surrounded the environment. Godzilla roared; he had won Triumphal. Maddie came out of her hiding place. She couldn't believe it, within seconds the fight was over.

But the queen wasn't completely dead yet, she quickly buzzed away, whirled up a lot of sand like a helicopter. She fell from time to time mid air, she had to heal herself. She gave one last squeak, then the swarm surrounded her and flew through with her towards the storm.

Meanwhile it had started to rain more, flashes came out now and then. Godzilla turned to Maddie, he slowly bent down to her. His hot breath surrounded her again.

Then he stretched his head upwards and made a contented sound. **"Reaaar."**

He held his hand down again to Maddie so that she could ascend. The wind was strong, it blew her hair into her face, she pushed it away, wanted to see where they were going.

Godzilla took a few steps into the cave, it was dark, pitch dark, Maddie couldn't see anything. She only hoped that Godzilla at least recognized something, otherwise he could crush her.

A few meters further Godzilla stepped on something slimy. Maddie heard the loud squeeze.

He recharged his attack. The reverberation of the cave amplified the sound more. The whole cave lights up in a blue light. He stopped.

Something was burning in front of them, the Blue Fire was still there. Then the cave lights up more. A light blue light came from the walls, at some intervals. They were crystals. "Wow." Maddie was amazed, Godzilla looked down at her, wondering what she was doing.

Maddie stared up the ceiling. It looked like a glittering night sky, full of light blue diamonds.

They responded to his atomic breath; they began to glow. Now Maddie also recognized what had burned there, it was the nest of the bees. The combs caught fire, and some had also contained honey.

The cave was big enough for Godzilla to lie down completely. He put Maddie aside, closer to the wall. She carefully sat down on a smooth stone. Directly behind her was a huge honeycomb of the bees, a few meters in front of her was the entrance to the cave, where now a gigantic wall of water fell down because the storm became much stronger. He put his head towards the exit, slowly and carefully, so that he could still see everything.

He briefly held his tail in the air, and then simply dropped it back. He clapped on something sticky, a loud smacking came from there. He briefly turned his head to his right, where Maddie was sitting.

It was only honey, no reason to fear. He yawned with a softly call, opening his mighty mouth spear wide. Slowly he closed it again.

He moves a little rightly, but carefully enough. He had put a right arm next to his head.

Maddie was feeling tired as well. She looked around, the floor was also mostly covered with crystals and stones. Not very comfortable. She looked over to Godzilla, who was still awake.

She went forward to his head. He noticed the footsteps beside him and raised an eyebrow what she was doing. Slowly and carefully she walked around his arm, the crystals were not there at the beginning of the cave, only meagre smooth stone floor. Maddie looked up at Godzilla's head, he looked out at the entrance, relaxed watching the rain.

She took a few steps forward and lay down next to his head. He felt her touch him and grumbled contentedly. She yawned and now watched the rain fall relaxed with him.

The light of the crystals colored the water into a bright blue, like in a shallow lagoon. Maddie thought again.

It reminded her of Mothra, that beautiful blue. She smiled, thinking how lucky she was. She felt her falling asleep slowly and her body getting heavier and heavier. "Thank you, Godzilla,' she whispered, and fell asleep.

* * *

**Castel Bravo meeting room**

"That fucking Godzilla!" Mark hit the wall with his foot. He was angrier than ever. "Mark, it would be better if you calm down." Said a man with brunettes, slightly orange beard. "You want to tell me to calm down, Sam?"

Sam Coleman and he weren't necessarily the best friends, Mark didn't talk to him often. Not because he didn't like him, it was just like that. "Mark, it would be better for everyone if you calmed down."

Ilene said. He nodded stubbornly and sat down on the meeting table. It was just Rick, Sam, Illene in the room, they were waiting for Barnes and Foster, it was supposed to be a short meeting, between all involved. Rick sat at the table with his laptop of a can of Coke.

He already knew it might be a long night. He continued to check the video and audio acoustics. "And already what found Rick? asked Ilene. "No so far not really... wait."

Foster and Barnes just came in. "Welcome back, how was the trip? "Thanks for asking, we were in a tropical storm. So what happened here?" Foster immediately asked me sternly, she always wanted everything on the table.

Barnes pressed a button on the screen in front of them to show pictures and more details.

"Yesterday at about 18:00, Godzilla woke twice from her sleep, attacking the base and killing Madison Russell." "He kidnapped her!" Said Mark he had seen it exactly. He hit his fist on the table, Rick's can almost tipped over.

"I saw that exactly, Barnes, Rick and I!" "Do you have any proof of that?" Foster said she obviously noticed that Mark wasn't feeling, but still she had to ask. "Yes here." He switched something on the control panel on the table, a record of last night came out. "I had found a half-destructed surveillance camera, the footage was still in good condition." He switched to the exact moment when Godzilla locked Madison in his hand.

"I believe you were, but I don't think she's going to live." "How do you know?" "I-" "Ehm, before anyone said anything else here, let's go to the scene in the control room." Rick threw in. Mark was so angry, he would mess with everyone and everything at the moment, but that could cost him collar and head.

"A good idea. My colleagues had made quite a strange discovery yesterday." Sam always tried to be quite positive, but that was hard. He kept pushing, shots of Godzilla and Madison as they were in the control room. "Apparently, Godzilla had his attention on Madison and his threatening display changed to one... Well, eh-" "courtship behavior." Ilene said. "Well, I wouldn't call it that, but yes."

Ilene continued. "We know little about Godzilla's behavior, but if we interpret the signals correctly, it was some kind of mating signal."

"Wait, they're about to tell me that Godzilla and Madison..." He made a few hand movements that visibly annoyed Mark. "No, it could be like Mothra."

"With all due respect, Mothra is a giant creature, like Godzilla, they're in symbiosis. What are humans supposed to do?" Sam didn't understand what Ilene meant, but she smiled briefly. "That's what I thought until I found this."

The screen showed Old Scrolls. She showed a Godzilla-like being, and on each one before that there was a person, usually a woman, dressed splendidly. On another picture a woman stood next to him and in front of them a crowd of people kneeling down.

"But that wasn't Gojira, it was Dagon. An ancestor of Godzilla. According to our research, he had more to do with humans than many other Titans. They devastated him as God, he protected them."

"That still doesn't explain why he kidnapped Maddie!" Mark became impatient. Ilene continued, trying to be a little faster.

"We know that Mothra leads the Titans with Godzilla, but Mothra has a shorter life loss than Godzilla. She can also sacrifice herself and be reborn. Should a Mothra die, it took some time until a new one appeared, sometimes up to years or decades.

And in this place the king chose a queen, and in this case a man. According to ancient legends, the Empress of Japan once ruled together with Dagon. Monsters and humans lived in harmony.

For at least a short time.

Monster and human profited from something like that, simply because we could solve problems, we can plan things properly. Titans probably where the reason why empires hasd risen and fell over the centurys.

As for the Japanese Empire even when a new Mothra was born, Dagon continued to protect the Empress and her empire. This ended as Muto Prime killed it, and the Muto's destroyed the Japanese Empire. Im unsure what his planes for Maddie are going to be."

"Wait so, does that mean he wants to make her his queen?" Sam shook his head, wanted to let it go through his head. Mark just sat there staring at the screen.

Illene looked at him, the hatred and anger were great in him. Foster sighed, she couldn't do so much with science. "Thanks for the history lesson, they'll pass that on, but one more thing, they said at the beginning that he was making a threatening display."

"I think it's my move." Rick got up, put the laptop more in the middle.

"To cut a long story short, Godzilla woke up the last time and gave these signals when Ghidorah woke up. Well, this time he had done it again, I had been following. At first I thought it wasn't there, then I found this."

He showed audio waves, there were two, both from the Philippines. "What is that?" Barnes asked, everyone got nervous, most of them immediately recognized what it was.

"Well, one is audio waves from Rodan, the other is unknown." He played them, showed the waves in two graphics. „The waves were higher in Rodan's audio the closer they were to the end. The other one was completely calm, only very briefly at the end it hit the top, where Rodan's wave went down."

Rick pointed to Rodan's waves. "First he threatens, a short time later, he calls for help. The other unknown Titan only reacted when Rodan became silent, I suppose he had driven him away." "What is it?" Rick shook his head. "I don't know. I had tried to contact the base, nobody answers."

„Good we will take a mission to that tomorrow."

"Was that it?" Mark stood up, just wanted to leave the room. "Wait here. What are you actually up to? Foster asked, "I'm looking for my daughter," "Sit down."

"What?" "I said it, sit down."

She also got mad, was sick of Mark's nonsense, even if he was looking for his daughter, he wouldn't be able to do it on his own and would put himself and others at maximum risk.

Foster stepped into the middle of the room, in front of the table. "With the current threat I call out alert level 2, all coastal areas are alerted. As long as we don't know where Godzilla or the New Monster are, we have to be prepared for everything, where was Godzilla last located?"

"Near the North Pacific." "Well, let's start searching there. We've called in an expert."

"And which old professor did they dig up now?" Rick asked sarcastically.

"Well, I'm not a professor, but I hope I can help."

Someone came out behind Foster and Barnes and welcomed the group.

It was a man of 30 with brunette blond hair and a light beard.

"Lieutenant Chief Ford Brody, reporting for duty."


	3. A new King will rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison start feeling more comfortable near Godzilla, she has to have faith in him, there is no other option for survival, now that the first creatures start to attack.

**Chapter 3: A new King will rise**

Lieutenant Ford Brody, survivor of several of the worst Titans attacks of recent years.

"Ford Brody, I had heard a lot of them before," Sam got up immediately and shook his hand.  
Ford smiled, shook also Sam's hand. "Serizawa had spoken much of you, I had heard you were one of the leading expert in Titan behavior and communication."

Sam leaded Ford to the table, handed him a place next to Mark. Ford nodded with thanks and sat down at the table. "Is it true you survived several attacks back in 2014?" Rick asked, putting aside the laptop next to him.

Everyone had heard a lot about Ford, Serizawa and he were quite good friends even though they almost never saw each other. "Yeah, to be exact, I was in almost all the heavy attacks, Japan, Hawaii, San Francisco." "You were in San Francisco back then, too?" Mark asked, he had a strange feeling with Ford, he didn't seem to be mad at Godzilla.

Ford nodded approvingly. "I live there with my son and my wife. I was there with the squad to get the bomb out of the nest, I was supposed to defuse it. We got them out to sea... actually rather said, the others shot on the Muto to give me cover, nobody had survived except me."

He told the story only briefly, yet it was somehow unpleasantly quiet shortly. But the story was much darker when he told it completely.

"Anyway," Foster interrupted. "Since Mr. Brody is a leading expert on Titan protection and behavior, we called him in on this mission."

Ford nodded, he turned over to Rick, who had turned his laptop back on. "I'd like some copies of the files from this incident, maybe I can find out something new." "Eh, yeah, sure, eh." Rick didn't know how to talk to him. "Just call me Ford."

"Me and Barnes go to the command center, get acquainted, then please come to the airfield at 8:00 a.m., we'll search for the North Pacific direction." Barnes left the room, only Foster went back for a moment. "Dr. Stanston, let me know when the Phillipine team has found something and next time only if I'm there." "Understood." Foster leaved the room. The others introduced themselves first to Ford.

Barnes talked to her in the corridor. "Mam, are you sure Ford is the right guy for the job?" Foster gave him that evil look, as if he was about to challenge her about her decisions. "Listen, the man had not only survived all the 2014 attacks, not only protected San Francisco from a nuclear explosion, but also spent years later hunting Titans and warning surrounding towns and villages. He was the one who found about half the critters out there, and among other things had very close contact to Serizawa. He had spent years studying these animals and is a lucky man when it comes to escaping death.

Will you tell me someone else who would be better suited for this job?"

Barnes stopped, there was nothing more to say. She was right, he was the best for it. "I thought to myself. You have a free time earlier today". Barnes looked at her in amazement. "Why?" "Tomorrow will be a hard day, I still want them always ready for battle any time, clear? "Yes mam." Foster nodded to him, a sign that he could walk. The two stood just outside the control room entrance. He salute before her and walked away.

Foster went in, wanted to get her coffee as usual, unfortunately the machine was broken. A little annoyed, she went to her control panel and began to write an operation report from today.

* * *

**Meanwhile, on the Ocean**

The swarm followed the queen, they would guard her as best they could, her survival depended on it. Beaten and in danger of her life, the queen bee flew with her people through the storm, miles and miles through rain, wind and lightning.

Some died of stress and exhaustion. They many in sea where the cold sea immediately surrounded them and pulled them down. They had to disappear from their nest, Godzilla was just too strong, it was just luck that the queen had survived this one blow at all.

The storm became stronger and stronger, the waves beat higher, the queen tried to fly higher.  
But suddenly it became quiet.

They were in the eye of the tropical storm. But not only was it completely calm, in general there was a strange atmosphere, there was no sound.

Light shone in from above and the queen looked up. The sun's rays still revealed detailed wounds.

Suddenly there was a high tone, very high, perhaps unbearable for other creatures.  
A shadow lay over her, the queen looked up, blinded by the sun she saw something with huge wings racing towards her, within seconds she felt her body being divided into two parts. Something sharpened with sharp teeth through the body like butter, it takes a few seconds to split the body. The queen was still conscious, yet,

Something pierces her skull, and ends her life instantly. The swarm has hardly time to react, they are all in panic.

He throws himself at the rest of them, and makes sure no one lives.

A loud high roar mixes with the storm, and silences after a few seconds, while the queen's body falls down into the sea, half eaten.

He circles around the swarm, and bites and beats his way through the swarm, no one survived, they all landed in the water.

After a few seconds he flew back into the clouds, for him it was only a small snack. He had something else to do. He noticed something nearby, some signals. He felt the need for revenge.

* * *

**10:00 The next day**

Madison was again immersed in her dreams, but they were not nightmares like before.

* * *

_She woke up, she heard a loud noise. A young voice called out to her, "Mommy, look!" Her eyes opened and she saw the clear blue sky above her._

_She stood up from the wooden bench where she was sitting. She was on a jetty, close to the sea. The fresh air of the sea flew against her face._

_A little girl stood at the edge of the jetty and looked at the harbour that lay before them, there were almost no ships there, only two next to them had moored._

_The girl had a cap, the long black hair went under it and wiped around with the wind. She had a white T-shirt with blue jeans. The girl was staring at the sea, not looking back._

_She walked along the wooden walkway, the wood creaked a little, at the end the girl stood, the water had barely reached the edge. She had her, called Mama?_

_She stood next to the girl and stared at the water. She heard a loud noise again, it sounded like the wind, but it came from a certain direction, the sea. Suddenly the water in front of it moved, a shadow swam around in the water, it was huge._

_"Who do you think is that?" She looked down, the girl has a very white skin, almost pale. She turned her eyes to the sea again._

_The shadow swam up, a huge dark hill built up in front of them. The water flowed down him, showing that he was full of spikes pointing in different directions. It wasn't a hill, it was a creature. "Which Kaiju do you think it is?" "K-Kaiju?" A strange word, she had never heard it before._

_The creature... The Kaiju moved his tail up, let him whip in the air for a moment before he banged on the water again. He had a dark brown color, with all sorts of arbitrary looking spines on it. Then she noticed right in front of them, of the size of the body, the head should be right in front of them._

_As soon as she thought of it, the creature straightened up, two legs stamped next to the jetty where they were, the right one destroying the two boats. They were scaled, had four fingers with claws, and smaller spines under their arms._

_So it supported itself to lift its gigantic body, probably 30 or 40 meters high. It stretched its head forward, and let out another loud roar. It held through the whole bay and was unbelievable loud, they were so close._

_"Reeeeooorgh!"_

_The head moved down and looked at them, leaning it right in front of them, about a meter away from. The girl let go of her and touched it's muzzle and stroked it._

_She stared at it. Her breath slowed down._

_It had an almost completely black iris with only slight green stitches. It's muzzle was slightly narrower and pointed forward. At the upper head it had a kind of neck ruff from prickle, which were again substantially brighter than the rest of the brown body. It had a large horn on its nose, and its mouth was full of pointed teeth, with two large canines in its upper jaw._

_It stared down at them and emitted a sound that almost sounded like respect. "Come you don't want to stroke Anguirus."_

_"Anguirus?" She had never heard of such a monster before._

_The girl looked past her, backwards and ran a little forwards, away from both of them. "Hey wait, where are you running to?" She couldn't even see her face yet._

_"Daddy's coming here!" Then she felt a strong tremor among them. The monster in front of them lowered his head even further, bowing down to something._

_Then she heard another loud roar. "Rogaaaaaaaaarrrr!"_

* * *

Madison woke up.

What a dream it was, it wasn't a nightmare, not really. It had felt too real, despite everything that was so strange.

She was still a little sleepy, she came back slowly and had forgotten what had happened. Then she let the events of the last two days go through her mind.

Kidnapped by Godzilla, dragged to an island in the middle of the ocean, protected her from various monsters, and had even created a roof over her head for her, in a certain way.

She heard an extremely loud humming beside her as the wall moved behind her. She had forgotten it was not a wall, it was Godzilla. He had also awakened, and now he stretched and bend to warm up his limbs.

Madison turned around and saw him move his huge jaw to yawn. His tongue hung out slightly, his jaw was also open a bit, perhaps to cool him better. He looked kind of funny, she had to giggle a little. He noticed that, he pulled his tongue back again. Then he turned his head slightly to the side and pushed him closer to Madison.

His eye was now very closer to see her better. The two looked at each other again, she still didn't understand exactly why he was doing this. Madison turned her eyes away, stood up and walked a few steps forward to her backpack she had left lying last night. She went through it again for perhaps something useful. In fact, she seemed to have overlooked it yesterday: a little book.  
Not really thick, but also not thin, her hand was big and had about 200 pages.

She decided to keep it as a diary to document everything that had happened. Should she ever come back to her father, back to Monarch, she could show what had happened. It also helped her to count the days, not completely lose any sense of time. Godzilla looked down on her confused, confused about what she was doing, he didn't know what the person with the bag really wanted, only it seemed important to her.

The book just fit in her trouser pocket, there she would always have it to hand.

He yawned again, letting hot air slip out of his throat. His gaze was directed at the entrance of the cave. It was still in the morning, the first rays of sunshine were shining down from the other side, the cave was dedicated to the sunset. It dripped a little from the ceiling, a little raindrop from yesterday's thunderstorm.

He felt, however, like something toe more liquid on a snout dripping. He looked up, it was still a honeycomb of the swarm. The cave itself was very dark again, the crystals were gone out again. He fasted with his left hand at the snout to scratch the honey away. Carefully he did it, Madison was to his right, not wanting to cursh her.

While sorting her backpack she heard a strange, smacking sound next to her and suddenly something flew to ground. Madison was startled and jumped back slightly, covering her face to protect it. She didn't know exactly what it was in the beginning. Then she saw the object, it was a light yellow thing that seemed slightly melted and a liquid came out.

She looked over at Godzilla, who just had something in his mouth. It was a huge honeycomb, he had picked it down from the ceiling of the cave. Slowly he put his head back on the floor. Chewing on the honeycomb, partially licking it off with his tongue.

"That would have to be breakfast, better then burned something else."

She looked at the smaller variant in front of her. It was only one piece, not really bigger than a barrel. She went closer and inspected it more closely. Smelling a rather strange smell, different than expected. Actually, she thought it would smell much sweeter than honey. But probably there are hardly any flowers big enough to produce so much sugar and nectar. It smelled much more like only simple wax, the honey itself had hardly a noteworthy smell.

Madison wanted to explain it to herself, but she noticed again that she was hungry, her stomach growled. She sighed, and looked for a good place to get the honey better, a part had already run out, and she wanted to avoid stepping directly into it.

Godzilla was partly finished, he only sucked the rest of the honeycomb. He licked his tongue over his lips to get the rest of it.

Maddie came closer to her honeycomb, from behind her back to Godzilla. She touched it briefly with her fingers, he was quite viscous even for honey, then she took a step back and tried it. It was indeed very sweet, sweeter than Ordinary Honey.

She loved the taste, there was something special about it several times. But after a short time she was already full, felling her belly being full. She had to save some of it for herself, it could be good as food, no matter how long she was here. Immediately she ran over to her backpack, while Godzilla was now finished with the honeycomb, and spat out. When she heard the clapping of it again, she was scared although hearing was a few meters away.

Madsion looked back and saw Godzilla licking her lips again and making a sound that sounded like burping. She had to start giggling about that for a moment, which again caught Godzilla's attention. He put his head a little closer again. She turned away and still had a slight grin on her face. In the backpack she found what she had discovered earlier. Three small glasses that were normally taken for samples. Not much could be taken, but at least it should be enough for later.

Carefully she went over to the honeycomb with them, Godzilla followed her everywhere with his eye. Again turning her back to Godzilla to fill the honey into the jars. Interested, he looked down at her, turning his head towards. She suddenly felt a slightly hot wind blowing against her from behind. Maddie looked over her shoulder, Godzilla puffed from his nose against her, he was very close.

After she was ready to fill the glasses,carefully loaded it into the backpack, along with the vials, which could later be shown to Monarch as evidence.

He turned his gaze away again and stretched his neck forward, yawned slightly and dropped his head to the ground.

"Wooah." Madison became slightly wobbly by the shock, supporting herself with her hands. A lot of dust was stirred up, it spread briefly through the whole air in the cave. Maddie coughed briefly and smiled at Godzilla. He still seemed quite tired. Slowly he inhaled deeply and moved his tail slightly back and forth, filling his nose with the quite fresh morning air. Just relax for a moment, even that's a good thing for monsters.

The last months were only a time of self-healing, the fight against Ghidorah had exhausted him. One of the toughest he ever had to fight.

For Madison it was also a hard time, not necessarily physical, but psychological. No child should see it's mother die so early.

She sighed and looked up at Godzilla's head, he looked somehow thoughtful. Shrugging her shoulders, took her backpack and walked towards him. She sat down, right next to His neck and leaned against him. The rather rough but also warm surface was a bit more pleasant than the rather cold air in the cave.

Madison took her pen and book and began to write.

* * *

_"Day 1, I'm still alive. Hardly hurt. I don't know how to understand all this here. For another person it would be strange to hear that there are about 100 meter big monsters. And I live here with one of them who is almost superior to everyone else. I don't know why I was taken at all. I just don't understand it. Why me? Why not somebody else, why does he let me live? Why does he protect me? I just can't understand it. I just hope I come back to Dad. I at least want to tell him something, not like... Mom."_

* * *

She had to stop writing for a moment. She let her thoughts run free again, everything came to her mind, she didn't want to see most of it, didn't want to hear it. Her head was plagued by the noises, the screams, the roars, the words.

Madison kept her ears covered. A tear ran down her cheek. She sobbed, it was too much for her.

"No, no, NO!" She screamed, frightened by her own thoughts. Plagued by the dragon.

"Roogaaar?"

Godzilla turned his head slightly to her, pushing her slightly. He looked at her with his big eyes, noticing that she was afraid of something. Slowly he let the energy flow in his body, his back started to light slightly and pulsated back and forth.

Madison stopped sobbing and looked up at him. The light illuminated the cave in a blue light that covered everything like a shimmer. Behind her she felt Godzilla's body vibrate slightly. He let this soothing sound come out of his body again.

She closed her eyes again and breathed a moment, "Thank you Godzilla."  
He briefly nodded.

Madison looked up at him in shock, could he understand her? It was a question she had been preoccupied with for a while, maybe he just interpreted most of it.

But now they had to move on, the beach wasn't safe, and both needed water. Maddie had consumed the coconuts yesterday, but she still hadn't absorbed enough liquid.

"Rooogar." He nodded his head to the cave exit to show that they had to go. Madison didn't say and packed her things together, first her book and pen in her pants, then she went over to her backpack.  
When she thought about what she might have forgotten, she remembered two things. The leg and the wound from yesterday after the fight. Her leg was strangely healed again, maybe it wasn't so bad, she could even walk again. But she grabbed her head and felt a slightly rough surface where she was bleeding yesterday.

Madison immediately opened the zipper of the backpack again and searched him for the first aid kit. There were still some bandages and bandages in there. Since the area didn't seem to bleed anymore and didn't felt quite big, she took a simple patch. Just stuck it on and it was done.

There could be a scar, or at least a scratch for a long time.

Carefully he supported himself with his arms, slowly pushing his legs forward. Straightened up, but still in a slightly bent position, so as not to crash his head against the ceiling, further back the cave was still quite narrow.

Maddie noticed that of course, and stared upwards as the huge Titan rises. He shook his head and bumped a slight hum. He always needed a little longer to wake up, his bodily functions were a little slower than with humans.

Godzilla bent her down again, with his hand to her. He held it open again, so that she could simply climb on it. She had no other choice, or better said, the best chances of survival were with him. Carefully she climbed up his finger on the hand.

He rose up again, carefully holding it in his hand, just as he could still see it, and at the same time it was safely stored.

She tried to hold herself in the middle of his palm. Every step he took was like a small earthquake to her, it trembled and rumbled incredibly strong in the cave, with the sounds probably amplified by the echo.

Madison was again so high, almost 50 or 60 meters, it was difficult to estimate. She just didn't look down, and just concentrated to look forward, or up at him.

Carefully he went out of the cave, and looked with his head left and right several times, sniffed briefly in the air. He made sure there were no enemies nearby and shoved out a short roar. Maddie briefly covered her head as they walked out, dripping from the edge of the cave exit, probably from the storm. In general the storm seems to have done some at least some damage, at least there was a lot of driftwood on the beach, the waves had completely stirred up the sand.

Godzilla stomped back to where they were yesterday to find a better way. Maddie looked up at the sky and the sea, it was so crystal clear and calm today, perfect to swim actually.

She thought again of past times where she was with her father at the lake, it was further away higher in the north of America. It was a small wooden hut where the family often spent their holidays.

Until 2014.

She looked up to Godzilla again, at his scared face with that jaw with all the sharp teeths. Started shooking her head, no he had not done it on purpose.  
But still, back in San Francisco, where she had lived for several years. At that time Godzilla had fought against Muto and right next to her house.

It came unexpectedly, the family was torn apart in between, there was absolute chaos. And so the youngest member of the family, Andrew, was lost. He had only been found days later, under clays of rubble and ashes, in the middle of the battlefield. Mark always blamed Godzilla, he had survived.

Madison didn't want to be too involved, but she knew it couldn't be him one hundred percent. Maybe it was the Mutos, maybe it was an unstable building. Titans didn't do this intentionally, they couldn't do anything for their size, it's not their fault.

Also, Madison was always sure that they wouldn't attack people directly. But now, with everything that had happened, with the fact that Godzilla took her alone. It was all so strange, she wished she could turn the clock back at simpler times.

Suddenly she noticed something touching her from behind, and suddenly there was a whole hot wind. In a flash she turned her head to her side and her eyes widened. Godzilla had grabbed her by the backpack with his teeth, just barely. He was extremely careful and somehow didn't manage to crush her.

While Madison stared at him in shock, she slowly noticed that she no longer had a foothold under her feet and was slowly hanging on to him. He took her from his hand and carried Madison with the mouth.

She didn't feel safe, it was extremely dangerous, what would happen if her jacket or backpack ripped? But still she couldn't get a word out and didn't try to look down. She took a deep breath once, closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Everything will be fine Madison, nothing can happen."

But as Godzilla moved, this bad feeling intensified. She opened her eyes only very slowly, so that only a small gap was open. She saw the cliff wall again, only it seemed to come closer and closer. She opened her eyes, Godzilla walked towards it. A few meters in front of it he stopped and lifted his head up, which made Madison hang on his chin. She felt her back on a weight, she didn't hang anymore.

She breathed a sigh of relief. But then feeling an extreme shock. Godzilla rammed his hands into the wall, clawed herself tight with his claw. And slowly he pulled himself up with it, he wanted to climb up the wall.

Shortly he puffed what was again hot air against Madison let fly "woah... haha." It brought them something of momentum. Every step Godzilla climbed up felt like a roller coaster. Slowly they arrived at the end. She already saw the sun shining slightly over it, immediately feeling solid ground under her feet again already. A strong wind came over as they were over the edge.

And when Godzilla slowly pulled herself up and hit his head over it, she recognized where they were.

It was an island, crossed by many gorges and valleys, high mountains, extreme vegetation and there was a mountain about in the middle of the island that Madison knew.

It was the mountain of Skull Island.

Back then, almost 30 years ago, the first expedition was here. Almost everyone who had a close relationship with Monarch knew about it. Once she had seen a few pictures when Mark made a presentation.

But the mission at that time was an absolute death squad. About 50 people died, most of them soldiers in the Vietnam War as well as some Monarch employees and an expedition leader. Among them was the man who had her mother on his conscience.

This island is considered almost uninhabitable, filled by the dangers. Madison was afraid that she could hardly survive here. Unless she trusted Godzilla.

He, on the other hand, was highly interested in coming here. He hit his way up over the cliff, while still slightly grinding his belly over the ground. When he was finally up, he quickly straightened up again. He took his hand to his mouth and let go of Maddie. She was startled and screamed for a moment when she had fallen down, she thought she was going to die but he had her in his hand immediately.

She trembled briefly, but was able to grasp her senses again. She looked up at him, it probably didn't look so bad for him, even though it was only 3 meters, the feeling of flying down on a 100 meter creature was still a shock that ran through her whole body.

While she slowly calmed down again, Godzilla looked over the island. He smelled something, something familiar, it felt like home. He let air flow through his lungs and let out a loud roar.

**"Skreeeeoooongghhrrr!"**

In the distance a swarm of birds flew away, frightened by the sound. The roar could probably still be heared it for a few kilometres, Madison had to cover his ears again. It sounded kind of threatening.

He was probably the strongest creature on this island, he would probably be king immediately, he would make it his home maybe.

Next to Kong.

Madison feared that the two might meet. It would be very likely that there would be a fight.  
The last reports about Kong were that he was about 30 meters high. That was maybe up to Godzilla's knee. But one thing she can remember well from Mark's lecture, that he lately had spoken about.

* * *

" _...Kong is a bitter fighter who uses his brutal force to defeat his opponents. He always takes the absolute offensive, using simple tools like other primates. But since he is growing, we don't know how his behavior has changed over the years..."_

* * *

He is growing. That was the point of the matter. Maybe he could already mess with Godzilla. Nevertheless, she didn't want to get in the way. It would be absolute carnage.

Carefully she took her backpack and checked if anything was damaged, but it was almost intact. Meanwhile Godzilla looked around.

In front of them lay a very big but also deep lake, maybe they could get water there. He left his head hanging down, and put Madison on his neck, she noticed what he was up to and slid his hand down, and landed quite gently on his surface. It was surprising, but you could sit better between his back plates, similar to a horse. Slowly and carefully Godzilla walked forward, they were on a small Plato, right in front of them it went down like a hill. Carefully he took one step after the other down and simply rolled trees and other plants over. At the bottom it was only a few hundred meters down to the lake.

Madison looked at him, he had a pretty clear crystal green color. It was certainly about 1 or 2 kilometers long. For a human it certainly took a few hours or half a day to cross the lake, maybe even a little longer all around. Godzilla it probably took only 20 minutes.

He walked towards the water, bent down and Madison almost lost her backpack. He tested the water, stuck out his tongue and touched it briefly. It was still quite salty, it had been directly connected to the sea. Further ahead the water could also be drinkable for her.

He could drink sea water, but larger quantities even harmed him, smaller animals could die from it. So he waded carefully through the water, when he was already some hundred meters ahead, the water reached him up to the hip.

With every step Godzilla created strong waves that let the water spill over easily.

It stopped briefly in the middle. He felt something in the water, something was swimming around, but it wasn't very big compared to him. He looked left and right again and made his way back to the other shore. "What's the matter?" Madison could feel his restlessness, minor vibration went through his neck when he got nervous.

It didn't take 15 minutes, they were almost at the other end of the lake. Again Godzilla stopped and growled briefly. "What is it?" Madsion asked, then she saw something rise out of the water on the shore. They were big, fur-covered creatures, with a lot of scrub on their backs and huge horns. They were Sker Buffalos, one of the many unique species here on Skull Island. They were very peaceful creatures with a quiet nature.

They were often in the water, eating aquatic plants that grew there. It was a big herd, about 20 animals, they all had appeared and stared up at Godzilla, they had never seen anything so huge.  
"Greear!"

Godzilla growled briefly to scare them away to the side, immediately they all went out of the way. The herd spread out over a large swampy meadow in front of them. Godzilla could now walk undisturbed out of the water.

He took Madsion again with his hand, very carefully with his forefinger and thumb, just about at the Hoodie. She hung several meters above the ground, she had to scream, she closed her eyes and prayed that she wouldn't fall down. But only a few seconds later he had put her back on the ground.  
She felt the moisture, soft meadow under her and saw the lake in front of her.

She looked up at Godzilla, who bent down to the water, and began to drink. He needed water again for a long time, in the last months his cave was flooded with sea water, which in turned his water balance extremely difficult. There were springs there that supplied fresh water, but with the together temple these were also destroyed.

He drank extensively as much as he could, hundreds of liters simultaneously, he could have drunk an entire lake.

Meanwhile, Madison observes these Sker Buffalos. They were very big, like elephants. However, they had a much thicker coat and longer horns. The herd had placed itself a few meters away from Godzilla, understandably they were afraid of such a big creature.

"If only I had my camera with me, I should care if taking water before he moved on again."

She took an empty bottle out of her backpack, the water seemed clear enough to drink. Carefully she went to the lake, squatted down to the water and filled her bottle. It was pure, so she could drink it. Hardly screwing her bottle and packed it in the backpack.

Godzilla drinking continued, the last days had dragged on his strength. Shortly he stretched his neck up and wheezed loudly, water dripping down from his mouth and light breaths formed around his noses. He stretched his head into the water again, splashing lightly, making Madison almost wet, only a few drops touching her.

She took a handful of water and washed her face and hair, also drinking swallows. She was thirstier than she had thought the tropical heat was causing her trouble.

She looked backwards, the Sker Buffalos kept their distance, a few animals seemed nervous to look around. Probably they were still a little shocked or something.

Madison wanted to get a little closer to them, observe them more closely. It was rare to see such animals up close, and she knew they would not attack if they were not angry. Madison took her backpack, strapped it carefully and quietly on her back and started sneaking up on them.

At about 20 meters or so, she wanted to go, that should be safe enough. But then one of the animals gave a warning shot. The whole herd started to move and slowly she ran away. Madison thought she was the reason, wasn't she hiding well enough? Godzilla hardly seemed to be worried, he continued to drink in peace, most likely he himself thought they were just scared. Why should he be afraid?  
Madison sighed and quickly wrote something down on her block.

 _"I should Sneak up more cautiously next time."_ Thinking that she made an mistake, she noted to herself.

But then she heard heavy footsteps behind her, but it wasn't the Sker Buffalos footsteps. Suddenly heard a strange, slimy growl that made her blood freeze in her veins.

Slowly turning her head slightly to one side, trembling with fear. She saw only briefly how a strange, black and white body splashed at her at lightning speed. Within seconds she could barely escape skin, while the animal missed. But she was pushed aside and fell to the ground.

Her breath became faster, her heart raced, immediately she jumped up to lose no time. For the short moment she recognized how the creature turned around and yelled at her. It had an eel-like, slender body, ran on two legs, had no arms, the black, gray with a bone white skull and a mouth full of small pointed teeth with split tongue.

It was a young skull crawler, reaching six meters high. It roared angrily at Madison, the herd had escaped him, for days he had been looking for something new to eat, his stomach hurted painfully from hunger. The Skull Crawlers were eternally hungry beasts who had nothing but food in mind.

The big Titan brought a small creature with him, just the right size for him.  
Madison couldn't run away, the animal was just too fast.

It ran towards her, she screamed in fear, hiding her face. The animal roared game, stomped its feet on the muddy ground de under the massive weight sank. Slowly he reached out his Long Tongue to grab his prey.

Madison was now sure it was over.

But then the roar of the Skull Crawler stopped right in front of her, she heard a short whimper and ended with a loud crackle that ran cold over Madison's back. Slowly opening her eyes she heard a loud crack. She again saw this gigantic shadow in front of her, almost like a mountain moving.

Godzilla had grabbed the animal with his mouth and simply killed it in just a few seconds. The animal's neck was open, its spine hanging out, bitten by the Titan's mighty jaws. Blood dripped into the sea and joined the now churned brown water and seeped to the bottom.

Madison fell on her knees and fasted to her heart, she would not survive this journey, this pressure was too high. "How much luck can you have? Who could have told me that the king of monsters saved my life several times? Yes, he had kidnapped me, but he had protected me the whole time. But what if he is not there? I did not want to know that... I... I..."

Madison stopped breathing, she felt like she just had a heart attack. Her head was dizzying slowly, she felt her arms weaken. Her knees began to tremble, as if she was about to collapse.

Godzilla only saw Madison kneel down and saw this as a sign of respect, roaring one more time while he had the skull crawler in his mouth. It was a welcome bite. He provided the energy he needed through the radioactive flesh of the monsters and titans, it gave. It also satisfied an ancient instinct that his species pledged to hunt and eat during their evolution. Developed as the ultimate Alpha Predator. He quickly swallowed it, the taste of flesh and blood spread in his throat. With a short smack, he had cut it up, some blood still stuck to his lips and teeth.

But even he noticed when something was wrong, Madison didn't stand up anymore, she lay on the ground and looked lifeless somehow. Carefully he leaned his head down to her, placing the hand a few feet besides her.

She lay silently on her side, embedded in the damp high grass, staring at his hand.

* * *

_"Madison!" A thunder sounded. "Maddie!" Several people shouted her name! She just lay there, unconscious, hardly influenced by the outside world._

_Her breath stopped, her heart was beating slowly. Slowly her strength escaped. She stuck to it with everything. "No I am not tired. She was lost in her thoughts, she wanted to sleep forever straight. It became quiet. Empty darkness._

_She heard her heart beating, always slower, quieter. She could hardly hear it anymore, she felt something cold running along her back._

_"N-N-o-o- No..." End. It was quiet._

_For a short moment there was simply nothing to hear. Just emptiness._

_But suddenly she heard something again._

_A scream, no roar. To hear it gave her strength for some reason._

_"Skreeeoognh! It sounded like anger, hate, energy, life._

_"Reeeeeeaaar!" Another one. It sounded like help, as if she was calling something._

_She felt again her body as her liveliness returned. She noticed that an enormous pressure was taken from her._

_Something bright flashes up, it was cold, but not like before, it was wet. She heard voices, but could only hear one thing again._

_"Rooogaaaar!" She had to wake up. Suddenly she felt air penetrating her lungs, she woke up._

* * *

Madison gasped for air, taking a deep breath. The hot humid air penetrated her lungs and then again felt very cold. She began to cough, almost swallowing herself as she saw the face that looked down on her from above, just a few meters away.

Godzilla looked down at her. He emits a soft humming, with a slight breeze coming out of his nose. He bent his head further down.

In her trance she could do nothing but stare into his eyes. They looked like humans only with a fiery orange iris. She stretched out her hand, just calm and serene, as it was kind of normal. She touched him again on his nose.

She saw the Skull Crawler's blood on his lips, dripping slightly down to the ground, mixing with the muddy grass. He made another soft sound.

Madison noticed how she heard something, feeling it through her hand. His heartbeat. She could clearly feel the sound of pumping. He now looked at her too.

It flicked her out of her trance. She widened her eyes, straightened up and looked around. She saw her backpack lying next to her. Madison took it closer to her, took out her hoodie and shook it once. It had dried out, the sand just rolled down.

The wind became stronger for a short time, the leaves of the trees began to rustle easily, the water of the lake made stronger waves. The wind whistles quietly through the valley, the soft howling sounds louder through the slight echo.

It became cooler, the wind blew against Madison's skin and she got goose bumps. She fasted on her shoulders, slightly trembling again. It wasn't bad, it was just unpleasant.

Then feeling something lightly and carefully touching her back, it felt very rough and warm at the same time, but also heavy. It was Godzilla, very carefully he stroked her with his snout. Despite his enormous size he was able to feel her very accurately and therefore handle his codination. She smiled, almost like a dog he had already got used to her. But here she was more of a pet than he was.

She could remember Serizawas words when she met him, that was when Ema took her to Monarch.

_"We must learn to coexist with the Titans, with Gojira." The even younger Maddie asked then for her already quite old man. "So he should become our pet?" Serizawa smiled and had to laugh slightly. "No, we would be his."_

Later he had used it in the interview, almost 2 years later he had still remembered it.

Godzilla shout a soft roar, Madison was in her trance again shortly. "Huh, eh, I'm okay." She felt her pants getting wet, the grass was even closer to the water. She got up, hastily pulled her hoodie on and threw the backpack over her shoulder. Once taking another deep breath, she had to pull herself together. 2 Trained troops had arrived here, almost all dying on both missions.

Even if she gave everything she could to survive, that alone would not be enough. This island is a zone of death, no place for humans too dangerous for ordinary people and teenagers like Madison.  
But she had Godzilla by her side, she had to go with him wherever he wanted, as Serizawa said, a symbiotic relationship.

And Godzilla was already on the march again, he stretched his neck upwards and once breathed in deeply through his nose, ejected a short whiff and angry rumble. Madison had got up, stared up, something seemed to have upset him.

He bent down, with his neck turned to her. Madison wasn't sure, but started climbing up his neck, even if she hesitated a little. Helding on to one of the plates with her hands. They wasn't very sharp, rather rough and pointed.

Carefully he pointed up and shook a short roar that caused light waves on the lake and made the earth tremble slightly, holding it by the echo through the air. Again some birds flew around, frightened by the sound.

He walked towards the end of the lake, where a relatively narrow river led into a narrower valley.

He fit through but turning around and react quickly would become problematic in it. Therefore he had to be extremely careful that no attacks came from the sides.

What Madison couldn't know was that there were more skull crawlers on the way, already at the nearby lake. They were on the hunt, but he could only spot young, not teenagers or adults. He knew they weren't after him, but behind Madison and all the other animals big enough for them.

They were like the Mutos, if no one could contain them, they would spread out and eat everything in their way. Skull crawlers were so built that they almost always had to eat, only designed to devour their prey. That's why they had such a long tongue to grab their prey like a chameleon. The tips of the teeth inside the mouth usually gave victims the rest.

These monsters could bring the balance of the island apart. Even though Godzilla saw the whole world as his territory, he could not allow the species to reproduce and spread. It was his instinct to prevent something like a hunter chasing his prey.

Madison watched attentively as Godzilla almost squeezed through the valley here. The stone mountains in front of them were only just bigger than him and not too wide either and had a lot of plants around them, many trees and vines.

It was a rather slow ride, Godzilla had to place his steps very carefully one after the other, sometimes the river in front of them had small waterfalls where he could stumble.  
Madison herself found good hold on his neck, she could build up good hold by leaning against his plates. She also didn't slide easily around on the rather scaly and rough skin.

Carefully she lay down on his neck and tried to get rid of her remaining tension. She closed her eyes and just listened to the sounds around her. Slowly, like on a ship, they moved up and down.

Godzillas stomp and rumble, the water of the river below them splashing on it every time he took another step. A light wind went around them blowing at her from the front and waving her hair around.

The light cracking of tree trunks, a few meters below them. Every now and then some birds made noises and buzzed away as he passed by.

Its surface felt partly warm, partly quite hard. It was like a warm stone slab so to speak. However, she also felt a slight pumping what went through him, it was his heartbeat. It slowly beat evenly and pumped blood through his veins.

Then she felt the heartbeat rise for a moment. She opened her eyes and looked around, she could not see so much in front of her, but she saw like the valley into a slightly bigger one, which was with a slightly smaller lake. Godzilla bent down, closer to a rock face next to them.

In front of them she now saw the valley from which you came join with another at a junction, and ended up in a slightly larger one full of forest, full of dried out bamboo.

Slowly she turned her head to where Godzilla was looking. He sniffed at a wall where there was an imprint of a huge red hand d


	4. Adult

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Godzilla makes his way through Skull Island, Madison stays with him in the hopes of being save from the Skull Crawlers, but as it seems the danger from them is still there, and much bigger this time.

**If this symbol * shows up, its gona be Godzilla Ultimate roar, from the 2014 movie.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Adult**

He looked at these signs, a kind of marker, so to speak. Like all animals, Titans also marked their territories, each in their own particular way, usually with acoustics but sometimes also with unique physicall markings.

Godzilla starts growling more aggressively again, which Madison clearly notices on the top of his neck. Suddenly he starts to move very fast and she has to press on him to avoid falling down.

A loud scratching dig noice was heard as he swivelled to the right side. After that he stood upright and calmer again. Madison sat up carefully and looked around her but couldn't see what he had done down there. Immediately, however, Godzilla went on, on the forest full of dried out bamboo and trees. The water beneath them splashed loudly on every step he took. The first trees under them broke like sticks when he was out of it.

It cracked loudly every time, and the trees where sometimes flying around but not so high that Madison could notice it. She looked back at the wall where the bloody hand was before. But now there were 4 deep scratches in the wall. Now Godzilla had left his mark.

* * *

**2 Hours later**

_"It's pretty nice here."_ Thought Madison as she looked around. The mountains were high up, partly higher than Godzilla, the woods were full of green trees and in between there were fields with wide meadows and rivers. If it weren't so dangerous here, she would almost like to stay.

Strangely enough it seemed so peaceful despite what she had heard. She didn't know why it was so, she suspected it was because of Godzilla. Most creatures were probably scared away by him. All but one.

During the Long Journey, Madison had lay down on his neck again, trying to rest, almost asleep. She had already become accustomed to some of the movements, the rhythmic pounding of his feet and the soft humming when he looked around didn't matter to her.

The wind high up blew cold over her back from time to time, but in between there were small breaks where it became calmer and warmer again.

She was almost asleep until she felt Godzilla getting angry. He growled and then another roar came, again this slimy cold hissing, which made Madison's blood freeze in her veins. As quick as lightning she straightened up and saw what was happening around her.

Three adolescent skullcrawlers blocked the way in front of Godzilla. They were almost 90 meters long and 40 meters high, three of them faced him. Godzilla had followed a valley along a small stream. However, the crawlers didn't expected him, just like he didn't expected them.

They had just found prey, a kind of big crocodile overgrown with plants or fur and they would defend it with what they had. Teeth squealing, one of the Skull Crawlers went forward and roared at Godzilla.

To surprise Madison, Godzilla took a step back. But he growled back a little calmer. The three Skull crawlers now went a little further forward, their footsteps leaving light marks in the soft ground, stopping in front of Godzilla's much bigger ones. He could just stomp on them if he wanted to. But Madison was with him so before he would fight she should be safe.

Carefully and slowly, he raised his right arm over his shoulder and tried to pick Madison up. She tried not to move so he caught her well.

But one of the skull crawlers splashed up at him and jumped up to bite his neck, a weak spot from him. Godzilla moved aside and threw the Skull Crawler back with his left arm.

Madison got into a spin, as she lost hold and flew to the side, down his shoulder she tried to cling but slipped too fast. A few seconds later she felt something had taken her. At the back of the backpack Godzilla had her between his fingers.

Fast enough to not fall down, he put her on the mountain next to them, almost directly on top.

The Skull Crawlers had now gathered and were hissing at him again. But now Godzilla could take the offensive. With a mighty step forward he made the earth tremble, stones and boulders slide around the mountains.

He approached them and tried to catch one, but the Skull Crawlers were very agile, and since they were more experienced they could avoid him better. One went further back to the finished prey, another steered Godzilla forward, while the last ran quickly back.

From distraction, the Skull Crawler also took the offensive before Godzilla. He stomped forward, evaded Godzilla's foot, hooked his claws to his Scaly Skin, ran up in a flash. Just barely he missed Godzilla's paws, wrapped his tail around Godzilla's throat and tied it up, hanged himself up and bit into Godzilla's neck.

Godzilla tried to shake him off but he was too tight on him. The second one next to the prey jumped forward on him and bit into the belly of the Titan and didn't let go either.

Meanwhile Madison tried to climb up, further away from the fight as Possible. With all her strength she pulled herself up the 10 meter high stone wall that hides the flat summit of the small mountain from her. She found halfway good hold, but slipped from time to time.

Something which again led to the stones and chunks falling down. The Skull Crawler behind Godzilla noticed that, he wanted to sneak at him, but the fight was hopeless. When he saw the little thing climbing up, he slowly started to climb up as well.

The other two had jumped down when Godzilla had almost grabbed the second one on his stomach. They ran back to prey and distracted him.

Madison had just made it up the cliff and was blinded by the setting sun. She wgeezed briefly, supported herself with her hands on her knees, she was all red and sweaty, her heart beating strong enough that she could feel it. Her vision of the sun became clearer. She held her hand over her eye as she spotted something not natural. She gasped for air as she saw what was ahead of her.

A huge wall, built of wood with many lace ends that stretched along for a few hundred yards, separated a kind of village with a giant tanker behind them from the environment.

 _"If I'm lucky, the natives still live there, maybe I'll get out of here."_ It was in fact the village that was spoken of in the first mission. Maybe if there was a boat, so she could get off the island.

Madison smiled slightly again, maybe some hope.

"Scroooaarrg!" Behind her a loud roar sounded. She turned around and was almost knocked over as the huge skull of the third Skull Crawler tried to come up, but didn't quite come up and slurped his chin up.

Madison screamed out her lungs as she fell to the ground, it resounded in the echo of the valley. And just seconds later, Godzilla grabbed the crawler by the tail and threw it to the other side, about 50 or 70 feet with the face against the rock.

But he survived and began to jump and bite on Godzilla's shoulder. The long pointed teeth braid themselves into his skin, but not deep enough to cause severe damage.

Madison, on the other hand, stood up. She looked around, the mountain went down relatively slanting, full of trees and bushes. She immediately came up with an idea that was extremely dangerous and she didn't want to do at first, but she had to quickly get to the village, to the wall, just away from the fight.

So she kneeled down and ran down carefully. She tried not to pick up too much speed. She protected herself with her feet and pushed stones and sticks to the side, slipped on the rather muddy ground, but it didn't matter if something got dirty or not.

With her right hand she held on to a tree to slow down. Madison was almost halfway through. Then she tried to hold onto the scrub with her left hand, but didn't notice that it was full of thorns.

She felt several stings in her hand, a little blood came out. She flinged briefly, jumping back and banged head her back on the floor.

With a short slight headache, however, she pulled herself together again and jumped up and half slid, half ran down the path.

But she didn't stop, she had to get to the village as fast as possible. With full speed, she ran down the open meadow, it was a huge open Valley, which went through again into a narrower one, which was still covered by the mountain ledge in front of it. The huge wooden wall appeared even bigger than she was before, it was about in the middle of the valley.

Desperatly running around the wall Madison tried to find an entrance. Not stopping running, she slowly ran out of air. She breathed faster and faster and got a slight sting in her chest she was now directly in front of the wall and behind her the huge free area and the entrance to the further narrow valley.

The wall seemed to be very stable and found no entrance. Becoming a little slower again, Madison was stumbling in the near of all the spikes. This wall was supposed to fend off the skullcrawlers, at least only the small ones, the very young ones. Godzilla just seemed to fight the big ones, there was little really to hear.

She stood in front of the wall and took a few steps back to look for an entrance. "Hello? Is anyone there?" She called up, it was worth a try, she felt a little safer. "Anyone? I need help!"

But there was no answer, no one came out. "I don't think they're dead, hopefully." She somehow had a not so good feeling about it, something seemed strange. It was quiet, a bit too quiet, even Godzilla wasn't to be heard or felt anymore.

No birds, no other animals and only very weak wind. She slowly turned her head to the side. "Shit."

Several hundred meters behind her, at the entrance to the ravine stood a young skullcrawler, directed at her. The loud shout had attracted him, now she had to find out somehow, Godzilla can't come to her rescue again.

But unsettled by the big wall, the skullcrawler holds back, it wasn't the first time that he was here but the young ones were afraid of the wall, tit could hurt them badly.

He sniffed around and shouted briefly before turning his attention completely to Madison.

Madison bit her lips, only had one way to avoid it and that was before he would snapped, she saw no other way, she had to try and hope. One step with the foot to the side, ready to run away.

With slow and heavy steps, the skull crawler grinded across the floor, his tail drawing a straight line behind him, followed by the marks of his feet. Saliva and blood from previous prey dripped out of his mouth. The pointed teeth were ready to drill through flesh and tear his prey to shreds.

"Come here, you bastard!" Madison called. The skull jumped forward, expecting to devour his prey. But Madison wouldn't be today. About an arm's length, she jumped to the side and was almost barely hit by his paws, but as she rolled over the green ground of the field, barely escaping.

With her face to the ground, however, still able to hear that crack and loud wet one. When lifting up her head, she got a rather disgusting sight to see, feeling like her stomach partly turned around.

The many pointed spikes and pillars of the wall were indeed effective enough to kill the Skull Crawler, head and body shot threw with them, the blood ran down from the tip of the wood, some insides hung down, but Madison was too disgusted to look closely.

She took a deep breath, _"Hopefully there won't be more."_ "Hey, over here!"

A male voice shouted behind her. She ejected a relieved sigh, and turned to the side. A man in his middle years, with dark skin, white beard and light hairstyle on his head and slightly shredded Monarch clothes.

A Monarch guy, here? On Skull Island? Could that be...

"Kid come in, I can't leave the door open long!" the man shouted, almost in a rather hectic voice. In fact, there was a door next to him, it was almost perfectly cut out, and hidden behind a small path between the tips of the wood.

The man probably didn't seem to have much time, Maddie ran off to him, it wasn't far, just 20 meters. Just before the door, however, he reached out his hand to stop, obviously, the spikes were very close to each other, but still you could slowly go through it side wise.

"Just walk through carefully and slowly, but still hurry, probably more will come." Madison nodded, and made it slowly through the traps. Then the man pulled her in by the arm through the door.

On the other end, he literally pushed her aside. He immediately slammed the door shut and locked it with a metal lock that groaned slightly and made unpleasant scratches.

When he finished, Madison was now facing a group of natives. She knew who they were, though, it was strange, and she also felt a certain tension as there were guards there. They said nothing, had almost no emotion on their faces, and just stood there.

The man had now turned to them and smiled briefly. Then he reached out to Madison, "My name is Aaron Brooks, former Monarch employee, your name is?" She hesitated for a moment, but then smiled briefly and shook his hand. "Madison, Russell." "Do you belong to Monarch, too? Didn't even know they were hiring teenagers now." With his finger he points to the sign Monarch on her backpack.

"Well, not quite, I live with my father in one of the bases, not really working in that sense." "Hmm, what base?" "Castel Bravo, the one with Godzilla."

Aaron got a rather uninsured expression on his face, "Godzilla, didn't heard that name for a long time. What did Serizawa dig up from the lizard this time?

Madison sighed and saw on the floor, hearing someone's name who died then, who was close to her, was hard for her. "He... he, it's complicated." Aaron wasn't sure what that meant, after all he had been here so long, things could have changed.

"Well, how did you get here? You couldn't have been alone here, special units of the military fell down like flies on a hot summer day." Aaron find this thing strange, something didn't seem right, first the wierd noises yesterday and today, now a girl shows who hardly looks like 16 and yet belongs to Monarch.

"I don't think they'll believe it if I said it." "Well I've seen some weird stuff, probably you, too, and the way I saw it out there you knew what to do."

"Well, I-" But the conversation was interrupted when the earth trembled and a loud roar was heard, it was the Skull Crawlers again, behind the wall. But it didn't sound like just one, and not just the little ones.

Aaron stared up at the wall with a shocked look, as did Madison and the residents. He simply walked past her directly to the native, he said to them: "The devils are coming again, warn the village and got to saftey". The two who stood in front of him, who looked like leaders, nodded to him and left the group.

Aaron nodded to the three guards who were with them. "Come Madison, we must hurry!" "What's going on?" She asked as they ran to a ladder and started climbing up. "We need to go up, send signals to the village behind us when they can get out." Madison climbed up with us, but was insecure, she wasn't sure if this wall against the skull crawlers would be enough, from listening it where the younger once mixed with some sub adults.

They could barely get to compete with Godzilla mass, yet the wall wouldn't be a problem for them.

At the end of the ladder, a guard took her hand and pulled her up, while the other two and Aaron stared in fear. Madison stood up from the ladder. The area between the wall was about 3 meters wide, with wooden barriers on both sides and small covered huts from time to time.

When Madison saw what was in front of them, she trembled with fear. "Holy shit."

The area was full of skull crawlers, some juveniles and sub adults roaring, hoisting and snapping at each other. All of different sizes, with the largest just under 40 meters high, with the smaller about 6 meters.

They all came from the valley in front of them, barely a dozen, even a little more. "The wall won't hold," Aaron said.

Then a loud deep howl sounded as the guards left large horns to warn the rest of the village they would go further up the hills. "Are they safe?" Madison asked when she looked at the village, and many groups of people from the tents saw them running away. "Not sure, but we can only hope that the wall will put them off again, usually they never come here in such groups and are usually scared when Kong shows up."

The monsters stopped, about 100 meters before the wall and waited, something seemed to stop them.

Aaron said it like he was hoping Kong would come, but something seemed to tell Madison that it wasn't. She folded her hands together and prayed that Godzilla would come. He could be her savior once more.

In fact, she heard a very loud roar followed by very hard steps, but not the one she was hoping for. Her blood froze, along with the others, they trembled at the sight of the monster before them.

Crawling out of the valley came a gigantic Skull Crawler, bigger than any previous one. „What is that?" Madison whispered "The mother of all skull crawlers." Aaron said.

80 meters in height, and 160 meters in length, with even stronger bone plates, had spikes on their backs, in similar three rows to Godzilla, but the skull also had two large horns on its sides. And four toes instead of the normal three.

"Run to the others, the wall won't hold!" Aaron called to the man, but Madison remained in position. Aaron wasn't sure if it was out of pure fear, but something seemed very bizarre about her.

The huge creature let out another ear-deafening scream, showing off its toughness well. The other Skull Crawlers walked aside, it was their Alpha. Awakened to call from Ghidorah, she was one of his Lacquers, but after his death she was the Alpha of Skull Island again. Kong hadn't shown up.

Snarling, she let her tongue hang out slightly as she walked slowly towards the wall. The smaller Skull Crawlers stood next to her and dodged her, she would easily eat them, the food for them became less every day.

"Come on we gotta get down here!" Aaron shouted. "The beast wants all the people as food that are in the village, if we are lucky we can hide, we can't stop it!" "But he can."

Madison said easier and looked at the mountain where she had slipped down. "Who the hell?"

 **"Godzillaaaaaa!"** She screamed from her lungs, with the most despair she probably ever had. Aaron just wondered if she wanted to kill all of them. The skull crawlers went into attack position, they spread out further. "Stop it!" Aaron yelled to Madison, she called his name again.

Skull Crawler's mother screamed again, but was interrupted by a loud thunder.

On the mountain to their left was movement, the mountain trembled and with a loud **"BOOM."**

A few Skull Crawlers ran away and took a safe distance.

A powerful shock from the earth caused half the mountain to collapse. Gravel, stones, earth, trees, everything threw through the air, followed by a loud impact that sliped of Madison and Aaron from the feet.

Madisons head rang, looking with a blurred vision upwards.

Then it became very briefly silent, followed by an extremely loud roar.

**"Skreeeeeoooogaarrrrrr."**

She got back the feeling of security, more self-confident, his presence made her stronger.

Godzilla stood on the mountain, with a mighty step up, he pushed even more boulders down from the mountain. His enormous weight shattered the stone under him to dust, rubble slipped down the slope due to the enormous weight of him. The mountain made him appear even bigger, also the strength he had to bring up to break the mountain must have been enormous.

Now he stood up, throned with a shadow over the valley and roared again loudly. He bared his teeth, his face was marked by anger as he pulled his forehead together, the veins and scars became more obvious a slight shadow fell over his right eye. From his mouth dripped the blood of the skull crawlers he had killed, no mercy would he show in front of them, his instinct was to kill them, the inner instinct of balance.

But he also heard a shout, it came from the wall. Madison called to him, by his name, waved and jumped high, he was supposed to scare the Skull Crawler here. But her calls were like bait for the monsters, no matter if the wall was there or Godzilla was here. More savage than anyone before, a sub adult rushed to the wall, the spikes could do little against him.

Aaron grabbed Madison by the arm and wanted to pull her away from the wall. "Are you completely insane?" But just as she was about to say something, the Skull Crawler jumped forward, his physique allowed him to catapult himself forward into the air even with several tons of weight. But not only did it make them vulnerable, they were not the only ones.

When she briefly saw the mouth full of teeth in front of her, she was pulled back from her feet, an enormous tremble shook the whole valley, it was as if the ground beneath them was about to break. Aaron slammed his head against one of the wooden barriers and passed out with a wound to his head.

But Madison was still conscious, and she knew what was happening. She could hear the Skull Crawler's whine again, the disgusting crack and Godzilla's mighty steps. But it took a short time for her to get up, she had fallen on her stomach and had pressed the air out of her lungs, she felt strong stabbing pain.

But when Godzilla roared loudly again, she overcame it, something inside her wanted to see him unconditionally. With a slight groan she pulled herself up on the railing and saw Aaron in front of her, still unconscious. And next to the wall Godzilla, who exceeded it by about twice, with more anger than before. Madison watched as he stood in front of the wall, protecting it.

Godzilla roared an incomprehensible sound and also longer call of himself, his Alphacall.*

After Ghidorah's defeat, the other Titans knelt down before him as the new king.

But the big Skull Crawler had no king, it saw itself as a queen and roared back. The fight of the two was kindled, a battle for supremacy until death. The alpha Skull Crawler, stomped furiously on the ground and pressed it down, stones and branches were crumbled under the weight. But nevertheless it moved so maneuverably, with an unbelievable amount of Stamina.

But even Godzilla didn't hesitate any more, and ran off. With almost 30,000 more tons, it was like small earthquakes that shocked the ground. His tail just flew over the wall and Maddie's head, she ducked out of panic.

The Skull Crawler hissedd furiously, and ripped his mouth wide open to strike and drill his teeth into Godzilla's skin. But it wouldn't be that easy. Godzilla turned around fast enough to cause a gust of wind that ripped trees out of the ground and hit the skull crawler fully into the right side. Teeth fell out of the beast's mouth while it flew several dozen feet to the side.

The smaller skull crawlers also started attacking, but Godzilla made short work of them. He jumped down and dug his mighty jaws into the body of a juvenile Skull Crawler. He swung his head up as two sub adult Skull Crawlers tried to attack him on the head. The two crashed into each other and hit deep wounds with their teeth and claws, but with only one powerful stomp he crushed the two into the ground. Mud and blood flew around as he bite and rips the skull crawler in his mouth. He roared and let the remains fall out with blood and bones spitting out.

But the Alpha Skull Crawler was back on his feet. With Godzilla unprepared as he tried to get on the next of the adolescent falls. With a quick run he jumped forward, with his mouth full of pointed teeth he actually caught Godzilla at the neck. He turned his eel-like body and grabbed Godzilla by the hip with his legs and clung to him, swinging his tail around his chest. Godzilla's back plates arch around each other lightly, and slowly the air was strangled off him.

"No! Come on, Godzilla, fight!" Madison shouted, all of a sudden it looked like he was in trouble. But it would take more than the need to beat him.

He tried to shake him off first, but it was too hard. Godzilla grabbed him by the head, slowly pulled him from his neck, but Godzilla growled in pain as the teeth began to tear parts of the flesh. Angrily roaring, he shoved his thumbs into the Alpha Crawler's skull, one hit him in the nose chamber and the other directly in the eye.

His whole body twitched in pain, with a scream of pain flooding the whole valley. It sounded like a whiny squeak, so loud and high, Madison had to cover her ears so it wouldn't hurt.

The other crawlers escaped, the Alpha was wounded, and began to lose. They all ran back into the canyon, down into their caves.

But the pain from the Alpha Crawler gave Godzilla time to tear it away. He lifted it away from his body, grabbed him by the neck and squeezed him tightly, so that he became weaker as he could no longer breathe. But the Alpha Crawler held his ground, tried snap at him with his mouth, tried to get his legs on him again, but caused a few scratches.

Godzilla dashed forward and rammed his enemy into the mountain in front of them, it made the earth tremble again, smaller stones and boulders fell on both of them. He stamped the crawler's tail into the ground and stopped at it. Again and again he struck him, his claws tore through the skin and left deep wounds open.

But the Skull Crawler himself struck back, stabbing Godzilla's belly again and again with his strong curved foot claws, each time a bit deeper. After some time Godzilla gave a painful humming, now he had stronger bleeding wounds on his belly.

He grabbed the crawler by the neck again, swung it once around the left side and threw it through the air. But the crawler's tail hit the wall and tore a small hole into it.

Maddie was shaken again, she stumbled over Aaron and flew a few feet and landed with her head on the ground. She slept over it as a few hairs got caught in small wood splits, causing her minor pain when she pulled it out.

Landed on his back, he could quickly get the Skull Crawler got up again, but Godzilla was already running towards him. With a powerful thrust he catapulted himself forward and fell with his jaw onto the neck of his opponent. With the strongest biting power on the planet, he slowly pushed through the thick bones of the crawler, who roared in pain.

Madison pulled herself up at the barrier again, pulling in a splinter of wood, but she was just in a state of shock that she didn't notice. Her back of her head was bleeding, she felt very weak, but still she could barely muster the strength to watch up to Godzilla.

She heard this slight humming again, which was getting louder and louder. With her vision still slightly blurred, she could only see the blue gleam of light in front of her.

Godzilla slowly released the energy, the fire in him. The Alpha Crawler knew what that sound would mean. He began to swing around even wilder and to beat himself. Contrary to expectations, the tactic worked, Godzilla's jaws usually escaped nothing. But when the crawler hit him at a certain spot on the head with his claws, the wound of Ghidorah. Godzilla screamed in pain and released his opponent.

When he was free and had a firm hold on his feet again, he hit Godzilla in the side with his tail. When Godzilla fell down, he shot his Atomic Breath. Thanks for the village, in the opposite direction, but he hit a mountain that collapsed into several tons of rocks.

On the ground it had fallen another huge earthquake, which felt normal to Madison by now. But the shock in her eyes was when she saw the crawler jump on Godzilla. Lying on his back, his plates pressed together in a very painful position. With a mighty blow his opponent pushed his foot into his chest, which again led to a painful growl.

The crawler stared straight into his eyes, with such a poisonous look like a snake, slowly letting his tongue slide out of his mouth. But Madison didn't just watch, she screamed from her lungs through the valley, echoing several times. A very short distraction for the Alpha Crawler, which Godzilla came sure to make use of.

Just for the short moment that his opponent changed his view, he used it to grab his leg, and with a strong pressure to break the bones.

An incredibly strong pain slipped through her body, causing another loud cry of pain. But Godzilla did not hesitate any more. He punched the crawler in the face and threw him to the ground, landing just in front of the wall. He got up as fast as he could, while the now strongly wounded Skull Crawler had trouble, his leg was shattered, he couldn't get up anymore.

When a shadow rose over him, he looked his end in the eye. Godzilla walked towards him, with heavy steps that made the earth tremble slightly. First he put his left foot on the chest of his opponent, who began to whimper under the weight. Then he turned it slightly to the side, kicking his opponent with his foot into his stomach, with the claws at the end pulling a deep wound.

The Alpha Crawler slept with his face on the floor against a mountain, slamming against him with powerfull force.

Then Godzilla let the energy flow through again. Maddie could now see clearly again how his back plates began to light up slowly from bottom to top. And when the crawler made one last sound, Godzilla ejected his mighty Atomic Breath, which hit a bright yellow sky with a bright blue.

He burned his opponent to death, no mercy left.

And with that he had won, and taken control of the island that long ago belonged to him.

He roared loudly for his victory. Madison, smiled, she hung down on the railing with her arms and was only happy that he had won again. Probably it wasn't because of her anyway, at least she thought so, but still.

Godzilla shook his head briefly. He couldn't get out without a scratch. The scratches on his belly were quite deep, Ghidorah's wound, which was still aching a little before, also hurt a lot.

But now he looked back at Madison. He saw her on the wall, almost lifeless somehow, but she wasn't. Carefully he bent down to her, the wall was about 40 meters high, but he was still 60 meters higher. With his nose he came very close to her, and lowered his head a little further to see her better. She lifted her head, smiling, but with a rather pale face and blood on the front and back of her head.

Madison stretched out her arm and touched his snout. She felt the strong humming of him again, and that warming at the end. "Thank you, Godzilla." She said as if he understood her.

But then she felt the sun shine on her face again, and the warm surface of her hand went away. Slightly dazzled at first, she could see nothing. She held her hand over her eyes and was surprised.

Some other animals had gathered, some other monsters.

They were the Skull Crawlers from earlier, a few juvenile and a few sub adults. Two also strange creatures were there, Syrenjaws. They looked like a crocodile mixed with a tree, Madison couldn't describe it any other way. About the same size as the sub adult crawlers, they walked away from them at a relative safe distance. Next to them, many different smaller animals ran around, some of which reminded of raptors, Death Jackals. They ran around at lightning speed between the legs of the larger ones, like a pack together.

But also in the air there was a lively life on the way. Many strange creatures, reminiscent of flying dinosaurs or bats. Madison couldn't see them well they were too small in the bright light of the setting sun.

They flew down to the mountains to place themselves on trees or stones.

After a few meters the animals paused when Godzilla growled angrily again, Madison had a idea what was going to happen now. When he turned his head slightly to look around, all the monsters in front of him took a deeper position.

They kneeled before their new king, bowing one by one, including the Skull Crawlers. They would avoid him, but still respect him, none of them would dare to fight him now. None of them could, they were too small.

When Madison smiled, she noticed something was happening behind her, there were some noises.

She just stood up and looked down to the village. The people had come out when they heard how the fight was over. And when the Skull Crawlers, their devils, bowed to him, so did they. The whole village knelt down.

And with that Godzilla let out a loud roar to secure his status as Alpha of the Island.

Directed towards heaven, hold it through the air like the wrath of a god.

But not everyone kneeled, Madison just stood there, looking at him until his roar slowly became blunt, her vision fading until it was completely black before her eyes.

* * *

In the darkness, a voice spoke. "Hey Mark wake up." A voice said to him, not exactly soft. Slowly it became bright again in front of his eyes. He heard the loud sounds of the rotor blades swinging through the air, and slowly noticed how this silence became louder.

"What, what happened?" As he shook his head he noticed the thread taste in his mouth. "We are back again, you fell asleep for a moment," Ilene said to him. Mark blinked briefly and again saw Rick facing him, with a laptop on his lap. "And how good was the five-minute sleep?" He asked sarcastically as Barnes just walked past them. "I don't feel like sleeping." Mark sat up, he had light rings under his eyes, he was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, not dressed, not showered and totally overloaded. "You should rest." "Thanks, Ilene, but I can't, Madison's out there, I gotta find her." "We'll find her, I promise." She put her hand on Marks.

He looked over at her and smiled slightly. But then a voice behind him said words he didn't want to think about. "If she is still alive, perhaps we will be lucky." Ford walked past him and looked down at Mark. Ilene took her hand away, somehow Ford had a strange charisma. Mark also looked back at him, a bit angry.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." He said with a reaching hand. Mark only nodded briefly and stood up. "But I agree with Dr. Chen that you should rest."

Ilene and Rick also stood up. Rick put the laptop in his backpack and Ilene stayed a little closer to Mark. "Today we searched Godzilla's rods and only a fraction of it, we still have good chances." "We should search his Northern Rods tomorrow, that's where he last drove himself before the attack." Ford nodded towards Ilene.

It rained outside, the wind was quite cold, water fell down like from rivers and thunder intensified the dark atmosphere. "Good to have the umbrella." Rick pointed upwards as he held it. Ford just nodded back silently, Barnes waited in front of the elevator.

"I just wonder all the time what Godzilla wants with Madison." Ford said, it also gave Mark a headache. There was a possible explanation, but it couldn't be true, could it? "Well, the way I see it -" Rick wanted to say something but suddenly Ford pushed him back and stopped the group. "What is it?" "Do you hear that?" "What?" asked Ilene.

But then she heard it too, a kind of beeping that slowly became louder and louder. Like in a hearing test, but it remained on a quite high tone, but became louder and louder. "What the hell is that?" Rick shouted as the sound slowly began to hurt. All the people on the platform held their ears. Like a needle, the sound bored through her head.

Ford looked up into the sky. Mark just stared at him as Ford took his hands off his ears and gazed in the sky. Ford had pain regarding it, but he could stand it long enough to run back to the helicopter.

But suddenly the noise was gone. Most of the people still had a slight beep in their ears, all sound so dull and empty. Mark wobbled forward briefly before hearing a male voice scream behind him. "ALL, GET IN!" Ford stood at the helicopter, with guns on both arms, a machine gun in the right and a rocket launcher in the left.

Then they all heard it, that high cry, like a demon. It flooded the air, freezing everyone's blood in their veins.

A shadow swept over them too fast to actually see what it was. But it was big.

All persons ran immediately into the elevators and to the stairs, down to safety. Ilene and Rick ran to Barnes, the two were immediately in the elevator. But Barnes was still outside, "Barnes, somethings is coming!" "Dr. Russell and Ford aren't in yet."

They also ran to them, but then there was a huge shock, Ford and Mark were thrown to the ground. A small explosion was heard, then a metallic scratching and groaning as something pulled away the helicopter. The wind seemed stronger than ever before

Mark had got up with his back to the monster. Then he heard that demonic squeak again. When he turned around, it was as if he was personally facing hell. A gigantic shadow stand over him, with two wings spread out wider than anything he had seen before. Red eyes looked down, like the devil, blurred by the rain. Mark trembled with fear, despite it being in front of him, he couldn't see exactly what it was, it seemed blurred from the rain.

Strange clicking high sounds came from the monster, as if it was looking for something.

But then loud shots followed. Mark looked over to Ford in a flash who was firing at the monster. Little impressed from the simple rifle, the monster got annoyed and tried hitting forward with his arm. But Ford already aimed the rocket launcher at it and hit the monster in the middle where probably his chest was.

A last blood freezing scream was heard before it disappeared, just like a bolt of lightning. Mark just stood there staring into the sky where it had disappeared, still shocked.


	5. Titan Hunter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison is save now, secure in the village of the Iwis. Godzilla is now their new protector, a god for them.   
> She owes him alot, and finally manages to own up to it.  
> Mark and the others meanwhile get to know the Ford, also known as the "Titan Hunter"

**Chapter 5: Titan Hunter**

* * *

"What the hell was that?!" Said Barnes as Mark was getting his wound taped on his head. It was just a slight head injury, but Ilene still wanted it looked over.

The team was down in the medic station, nobody could explain exactly how it happened. However, they knew there was an unknown monster out there, still.

Stanston stormed in with his laptop under his arm, it looked like he was in a hurry. He hurled it onto the table next to Mark's bed, unfolded it and nervously hit the keys. "Stanston, what's going on?" Ilene asked, it didn't suit him. He ignored everyone and talked to Sam on the phone.

"Well what did he say...? What was the description?... Good, data is coming in."

"Stan, what's going on?" Mark asked confused. "What did it look like?"

"What?" "What did the monster look like? Sam just interviewed with the survivors from the Philippines."

"Are they okay?" Barnes asked him, he wasn't fully informed yet. "Most of them are just hurt a littel." Stanston turned back to Mark as he nervously hit the button. "So what did it look like?" "Well-" "It had big wings, long arms and red eyes." Ford leaned with his shoulder against the door frame.

"Because of the rain we couldn't see very much, the wings of the monster wiped it even more in our face."

"According to the description, it sounds like a male Muto." Ilenen suggested.

"You mean one of those things from 2014?" Where Barnes said that, Ilene looked over to Mark, he knew as well as anyone else what that could mean.

"That should mean a female called him." "Well Mark, but the only single Muto lady is still sleeping happy in Fukushima." Stanston said as he shrugged with his shoulder. Ford entered his knowledge about the Muto, which surprised most that he knew so much. Still, he wasn't a Monarch employee which made Mark suspicious, but he had no choice but to find Madison at any price.

"I had seen the male Muto myself, he can't stay in the air like a Choppa, the wings are designed for long distance flights. Moreover, this monster was much more agile than anything I had seen before, it flew away in a few seconds."

"It was too high." Mark said. "What?" Barnes was confused but Ford just nodded, he knew what was meant. "Mutos can't make such high noises. When Mutos communicate, they make very deep sounds like whales do."

Stanston stood beside the laptop with his arms crossed, a kind of audio track was played, he cleared his throat. "And now comes my terrifying main attraction. Mutos, as we know, have a built-in EMP, but this monster has managed to knocked out our electronics with it's sound waves. No other monster before it has ever been seen with such an ability. The Beast cut off all devices for a short time, computer, radio, everything gone." He pointed his finger at the trail that ended abruptly as it went up. "Those are high-frequency sonic waves."

Mark slowly stood up and saw himself with wide eyes. "What the hell?" "Wait, does that mean if this thing, does that Sonic whatever something, we are?" "Just as screwed as like with the Mutos 5 years ago, well recognized Barnes." Ford mocked a little. Rick gave a slightly desperate laugh. "It gets even better, the same thing happened in the Philippines, everyone there says they first heard that beep sound, then heard a short fight between Rodan and the Monster. They hadn't seen it, the Monster had shot their tent several meters over the beach."

"Wait, Phillipines, Rodan, he is there, isn't he?" Stanston nodded, "The turkey got hit, he lies unconscious on the beach of the island." "That doesn't make sense, a muto wouldn't miss a radioactive source for food." Said Ford, that was very strange for him, Rodan was a huge radioactive energy source and Mutos were almost only after such a thing.

Stanston showed on the wall display a picture of a drone over the volcano, Rodan laying with his two wings spread out on the beach in a kind of trance. "We had taken samples, we're not sure, but it seems to be a toxin that should paralyze him for some time." "Let's see Rick. How long do you think this is gonna last?" Ilene went to his laptop and checked the data Rick had provided. "I don't know, a few hours? Days? Months?" He shrugged his shoulder and dropped his arms.

"Strange, meanwhile, only a few monsters were able to turn off electronics, as I said, if it was a Muto, it wouldn't have left Rodan lying there." Ford looked at the files, next to him was a control panel, the Audiolines where shown befor him. He remembered the pictures his father had shown him in Japan, these look different, higher, more jagged, more aggressive.

"Say Dr. Stanston," Ford asked him, "Rodan is supposed to be a strong monster, right?" Stanston wobbled his head slightly, with a fake smile. "He could fight Ghidorah for a few minutes, and is the fastest flying creature on Earth yet." "That is, whatever knocked him out-" "Probably must have gotten the reaction speed and skill of a dragonfly." Stanston said.

This statement made Mark thinking, he spoke quietly to himself, his thoughts went through his head for a moment. He had to think of Madison again. He didn't want to give up hope, but it seemed bad. He was running slightly cold along his back, as if seeing something familiar, frightening. _"Mark."_ He heard his name echo through his head. _"Emma?"_ No, she was dead, it couldn't be her. Suddenly someone put a warm hand on his shoulder. He slowly looked over to see Ilene. "Mark? Are you all right?" "Yeah, just a little headache."

General Foster knocked on the door. "Ford Brody, could I have a word with you?" "Of course." He said with a suspicious look at the laptop. These audio waves gave him a bad feeling.

As the two left the room, Rick began to whisper slightly. Mark noticed, however, that he heard something about "How do I explain this?" Rick just walked nervously up and down the room, "What's wrong Rick," Mark asked.

He looked at him and shook his head slightly. "Mark there's more." Said Rick what worried him. He sounded more serious, that didn't suit a comedian like him. "I compared the audio files with those of the incident in the Philippines, Godzilla's appearance, and the current attack." Mark sighed and shoved his hand on his head. "Get to the point, Rick." "Well, both shots are very similar, with only slight differences. Sam compared them to other Titan calls. The whole yadda yadda you know, they all resemble each other in a certain way, but with some differences. What Rodan had attacked, had called for Godzilla." Mark snapped up with his head, looking at Rick with his eyes wide open.

Rick was shocked, Mark looked angry and scared at the same time, Ilene had to hold him.

"Mark, a similar signal was given by the 2014 Mutos in the mate search. But if I compared it correctly, it would have to be a battle cry. It hunts Godzilla."

He shook his head. "No, no, no. What? Then why is he taking Madison with him?" "I don't know, maybe... no idea, had he seen her back in Boston, who knows, maybe he wants to protect her?! Man, I'm doing my best here too, but I don't even have a funny answer to something like that".

"I gotta go find Madison." Mark stood up, with all his strength in his legs, but suddenly felt how it became black in front of his eyes, his senses became fuzzy, he was dizzy. He staggered through the room, stopping at a bed next to him. "Mark, come on. Sit down." Barnes helped supporting as Ilene catched him and brought him back to bed.

Ilene put him aside. Mark fell asleep instantly, it was already later, he was exhausted, he had to rest. "I will take care of him. Rick, go to Sam, keep looking for the monster." "Right away, by the way, your sister called." "I'll call back to her, thank you." Rick left the room, Barnes followed him, but he talked to Ilene briefly. "Should I get a doctor?" "No, it's all right, thank you." Barnes nodded and smiled. "Dr. Russell is not a soldier, but a fighter."

Ilene could only smile slightly when she heard that and looked down at Mark, who was asleep as if he had stepped away. She sat down next to him on the bed, tapping him on the shoulder.

"You wanted to see me, General?" "Yes, and I want to ask you what you can think of shooting at a Muto without any firing clearance or order?" Foster spoke strictly to Ford, she had the highest command in Castel Bravo, should Admiral Stenz not be present. She was by no means satisfied with what Ford had done.

"I just did something to defend Dr. Russell and his team." "That's not your priority. You were involved as counsel, not as front attack." Ford crossed his arms, not very impressed about Foster testifying. She sighed angrily, Ford didn't seem to give her the respect one would expect from a subordinate soldier. "Listen, as I said, if Admiral Stenz isn't here, I'm the highest ranking person on this base. If you disobey me again, there will be consequences. It will only be fired if I give the order, soldier, understand?!" Ford nodded his head. "I understand, but I was brought here by my experience. I've probably dealt with more of those monsters out there than anyone here on this base." He walked across the room and looked out at a window. The huge cave, some kind of cavity, artificially created for this base.

He looked over to a research facility where the head of the female Muto was hanging and being examined. He remembered what happened in 2014, how the events had changed the world in which they lived forever. "What had Serizawa told you about me?" Foster raised her eyebrow slightly, "Not much why is that relevant?" A slight grin went over Ford's lips.

"You know, I quit disabling bombing almost 3 years ago. 2014 was a crucial point in my life. I lost my father, met Serizawa, found out that there seem to be huge, ancient monsters. And I had almost saved San Fransico from the extinction of a nuclear bomber." He turned around, back to Foster with folded arms opposite her, he was just half a head taller than her when they faced each other. She wasn't sure what he wanted with this. "Afterwards I retired for a short time, for a few months, cured myself. Then I went to Serizawa. I wanted to help something in the world, I knew these Mutos and Godzilla were could never be the only ones. He helped me with various payments, expeditions and so on. For me it has always been my first priority to help others when something should happen. Don't you do the same?" Foster grinded his teeth slightly, he was partly right.

But Ford wasn't finished yet. "My wife and child, they support me anyway. We had been used to being apart for some time before..." "Listen, I understand you, absolutely, but you can't attack without fire clearance. And you won't change my mind with your life story, I will give you a chance, if you do something like that again, you will be separated from this operation."

Ford smiled, he didn't think much of the threat, "I'm aware of that, General, but if somebody is in danger, I'll ask next time." He slowly walked out of the room, he didn't turn around until Foster called him. "Good. There's a second search tomorrow at 08:00, the exact information's are in your quarters." "Sounds good." "An short stop will be made in San Fransico." She added, Ford smiled again and nodded.

* * *

**Castel Bravo, 18:00 Canteen**

A light smacking came from the plate when Ford took a dumpling on his plate. It was dinner and the canteen was still quite free. He walked around with his food and looked for a place. "Hey Ford, there's still room over here!" A male voice shouted behind him. He turned around and saw Barnes with Rick and Sam at the table and a place free.

Like in a usual barracks, he pinched his way through the line with soldiers just eating their rations, but the food was better here. He sat down quietly and simply began to eat, saying nothing. But of course the others started to talk at some point.

"So how was the conversation with the boss? Was it worse then a giant monster?" Barnes asked Ford, but he shook his head and just shoved a bit of meat into his mouth. "Really, she looked pretty sour when she came in, which usually means you're close to being excluded from a mission. Had that only once, but she gave me another chance." Ford giggled slightly, seemed familiar to him. "She's like every other general I met, angry look and loud voice, with a little warning next to it. Believe me, I've experienced too much as if that could still impress me."

Barnes' mouth fell down slightly, with a slight grin, normally everyone had great respect for Foster but Ford didn't seem to share it. But not like a newcomer who just came in and made fun of his boss. No more like someone who just had more experience than others. It was something that also led him to a slight distrust.

Ford was unlikely to do anything like Dr. Emma Russell, that was out of the question. He was a soldier, not a crazy scientist. However, he had experienced a lot, possibly more than Emma, but he held back. He only spoke when he felt it necessary and hardly told anyone anything about what he was actually doing, because officially he was no longer in the US military.

"Well, um, I've heard a lot about you." With a slightly broken and nervous voice Sam said. Ford chewed on his food and asked with a half full, slightly sarcastic mouth, "What do you hear about me? "Well a little something, apart from the fact that you brought the atomic bomb to sea that almost went off in San Fransico." Stanston said, Ford shrugged a little, for him it wasn't the biggest thing in his life. "Um, I had also read the report of the first incident in 2014 where the Hokmuto hatched. Your father had apparently known about it." "Yes, unfortunately he died in the attack." Ford quickly became silent, it was not very pleasant to talk about it. "I also read the reports. He was a good man and a gifted scientist, god would he have joined Monarch." "I'm pretty sure you would have got along well with him Stanston." Ford smiled slightly. Barnes poked around lightly in his food and asked Ford another question.

"You were there at the Halo Jump, right?" "Yes, why?" "One of my former friends was there as well. He was one of the scout up on the roofs, unfortunately he hadn't survived, he was on a building where a Muto had crashed in." "The mission was really hard, I was very lucky but only 2 more scouts survived. I still can't put it into words how grateful I am for the others, they stayed behind to stop the Femuto."

Ford leaned slightly back and thought about it, he went to the soldiers' funeral, he just had to, without them the atomic bomb would probably have gone off in San Fransico.

"Um, I had heard something about it, it sounded a bit strange when I heard about Serizawa. you are known as Titan Hunter." Ford giggled slightly and shook his head. "Yes so to speak. I couldn't completely let go of what had happened. Since me and Serizawa understood us relatively well, we stayed in contact for some time. I wanted to get away from the military, but also not directly to Monarch, I wanted to be more of a part of my own. So I began to help villages and small towns to take precautions at locations that were of course publicly known." "Like a kind of tornado hunter?" Joked Stanston. "I think it's pretty accurate. You know for sure there was an outbreak of a Titan every few months, despite everything. I got support from Serizawa should I need it."

Barnes and the others were a little confused, what did he mean? "I'm sorry I don't quite understand helping with what?" Ford grinned. "Titan hunting? It's not that hard to kill them or catch them. I had learned one from 2014, rockets, heavy guns and tanks can't just kill them, but a simple assault rifle can distract them." "Wait, so really hunting? In man against monsters like Hercules or what?" "It's not too hard Rick, Besides, you need more intelligence than physical strength." Ford smirked a bit. „I drive with a special Jeep that I changed up, with armour and guns, towards the place of the Titan. Helicopters and other Monarch vehicles monitor the whole thing. I shoot at the monster a few times. Then I get in immediately and put the pedal to the metal. As usually, the monsters gona run after you."

Sam was very amazed at what he heard, it couldn't have been real. Only one man hunting the monsters out there?

Ford continued. "Depending on the size, I then drop grenades with trance gas, sometimes it doesn't work because of some biological stuff. Then we have to kill them, which doesn't always work." "That sounds too crazy to be true, man." Rick said. Ford smiled at the statement and ate on. "I can send you the mission reports." "But then the last few months must have been a hell of a job." Ford nodded to Barnes. "You say it, with all the Titans waking up, I'm trying to lure them somewhere into uninhabited areas."

"I think I understand now why Foster doesn't scare you." Ford laughed slightly at Barnes, yes he had seen too much. Sam stroked slightly over the beard, he had heard something similar from Serizawa, but never told exact details. "Ehm Ford, one question, where were you waking up before Ghidorah's?" "Funny you should ask that, Sam. I was in China, at the moth temple." "Wait, where Emma and Madison worked? Did you-" "Well guess who gave the help signal. Serizawa wanted me there because Mothra would hatch soon. And I admit, Emma Russell always seemed a bit suspicious to me, I didn't know why but well, now we know."

Barnes sighed slightly, he had to think back to what happened in Antarctica. "That bastard Jonah, he cost me many of my men, I would have loved to kill him." "Believe me, it was almost got my turn." "What?" "I took Jonah and his men under fire, but had to stop when I saw the 'hostages'. Not sure but I might have got 5 of his men, but ti was outnumbered, gave me a scratch here". Ford stretched his Camo striped vest up and pointed to a scar of a bullet.

But that was by far not the only one, only the one that would most likely showed.

"Dude, you sound like a One Man Army. Like a superhero." Rick laughed and Ford had to laugh about it too, the thought was funny. "Anyway, after that I ran back to the control room to see if anyone was still alive. I only saw the larva of Mothra." "Did she react aggressively? I mean, the Orca was close by." "No, they had shut it down. Anyway, I kept quiet and looked at her. She seemed to watch me carefully and also to come closer. But when the helicopters came she broke out, through the ceiling, luckily not a few stones killed me."

Partly he kept thinking about what was going on, but he didn't tell the others everything.

Ford finished his meal and with it his conversation. He stood up and picked up the tray and went to the drop-off. Barnes, Sam and Rick looked after him. "You believe him?" "Barnes, I don't think he can know exactly what happened in China when he wasn't there." Sam said. Rick shook his head again and turned to his food. "I tell you, Serizawa had respected this man and if you ask me, right."

* * *

**Skull Island**

She felt something warm around. A hot air surrounded her at a regular distance which made her tired. Her joints hurt slightly, she didn't want to get up. A loud humming came from behind, it gave her a secure feeling. But then she felt someone touching her on the shoulder and pulling slightly. "Hey, Madison, wake up." "Huh?" She slowly opened her eyes. It was dark the night had fallen, but a slight light was in front of her.

It was a small candle that Aaron held in his left hand in front of her, with a bowl of food inside. Madison heard the strong wind from Godzilla's breath behind her.

In front of her was a small ascent where the natives' tents were, a larger campfire was burning, with some people sitting by. "What happened?" "Well, the skull crawlers and the other monsters have run away. There's a little celebration for the king's return. Here, take the bowl, you must eat something." Aaron handed her the bowl where there was a kind of soup with meat and vegetables. It smelled delicious, at least it was the first real meal after some time. "Thank you." She took the bowl and started eating immediately. Aaron smiled, she was really hungry. He turned his eyes up to Godzilla. He layed with his head on the land and half on the river. He had probably fallen asleep to recover from the fight.

He had never seen him personally before. Kong was an impressive animal, he was like a king ruling Skull Island. But Godzilla, he was like a god over this island, the biggest creature he had ever seen.

Madison noticed Aaron staring up at Godzilla as if lightning had struck him. "He looks impressive, doesn't he?" She looked slightly over her shoulder, with a little happy smile. "I don't know, my breath is taken away." "That does happen to everyone." She ate on and looked over to the wall that Godzilla had previously protected from Skull crawlers. It had small holes and cracks, it was inevitable that the wall would not be damaged, but something seemed strange.

Godzilla was on the other side of the wall, near the village, but how did he get over there? She turned back to Aaron and put the bowl aside for a moment. "What happened? I mean, why am I here and Godzilla behind me?" "Ehm, well. You fainted at least that's what I saw. The monsters have gone, Godzilla stayed."

Madison remembered that the village had kneeled down to him like the monsters. "Anyway, the people wanted to get us off the wall, but they only managed to wake me up, you were completely kicked out. As I came to, Godzilla walked towards the wall and leaned down to us. I can't explain it, he had picked you up with his hand, and walked extremely carefully with one leg after the other over the wall. And as you can see, he put you down here and went to rest."

Her eyes were slightly shocked turned to Godzilla, he actually took care of her. He slept contentedly, like a child. She supported her head with the hand and realized now that she had wrapped some kind of cloth around her. "What is that?" She asked while pointing to her forehead. "We had to patch you up, you were pale and you were bleeding from your forehead. Some of the people here wanted to help you in the beginning but he," Aaron pointed towards Godzilla, "was with you the whole time. He had growled at everyone and bared with his teeth, really terrefying to be honest. After some time he seemed to calm down and let us help you."

Protecting, only why?

"Thank you Aaron." "No, we thank you, you brought him to us." Madison shook his head slightly. "He brought me here, for whatever reason, I don't know..." It sounded confusing to Aaron what she said, but after years on Skull Island he accepted it.

"Tomorrow some of the tribe's elders want to talk to you, a great honor for you. They rarely do, and not with newbies." He turned to the village with his arms crossed. The huge flame in the middle glowed so strongly, embers and ashes flew easily around. "If you need anything else, come to us. A blanket, more food, whatever. I'll leave the candle with you."

"Thank you, Aaron." She said again. He walked towards the tents and sat by the fire with some other people.

Madison sighed and ate on. She couldn't quite describe the taste, but she was glad she was here now, safe and with other people. Satisfied she stared up into the stars, the air was crystal clear here on the island.

A deep noise behind her went through the air like a loud throat. A slight dragging over the ground made it tremble. Godzilla had woken up and pushed his head slightly forward, gently touching her back. Maddie felt the huge rough wall against her pushing, a slight warmth emanating from it. "Hey big guy, you awake?" She turned around and saw Godzilla looking down on her with a slight smile.

He sniffed briefly and lifted his head slightly up to relax his neck. The fight today wasn't the most devastating he ever had, but the crawler had caused a good deal of damage, some scratches would remain for a few days. His only advantage was agility, which didn't have much effect on a colossus like Godzilla.

Maddie put the bowl aside, stood up and turned to Godzilla, who of course held his head down to her again. Carefully she stretched out her hands again and put them on his nose. A slow growl came from him, she could feel the vibrations on him most accurately.

"You really are a wondrous creature, you know that?" He hummed briefly, of course he couldn't say anything. Madison pressed her arm against him, embraced herself, while hugging him as well as she could. "Thank you Godzilla. For everything. Maybe you don't even know how often you saved us. Dad owes you his life, I risked mine against Ghidorah, but you saved me." A slight tear came from her. Godzilla felt that, he felt that she was not happy. "You protected my family as well as you could." She paused for a few seconds, breathed deeply and sobbed briefly. "I forgive you for what happened to Andrew. I know you wouldn't do that intentionally, you just wanted to fight your enemies. Mom... I know she wanted it like that, she sacrificed herself for us, I had forgiven her... but it shouldn't have been like that, nobody should have died, it should have... i-i-it should have..."

She cried, the tears ran over her face like rain from the clouds, she had hardly talked about it before. Tried to completely hide everything. It devoured her more inwardly not to tell anyone how painful these experiences were. Knowing that the planet almost went to ruin because she only wanted to help. The innocent had to die because she couldn't intervene in time.

She pressed herself against him and pinched her eyes together, not sure what would happen now. She was very sure that he wouldn't hurt her, for whatever reason. Her feelings were released in a gigantic explosion full of emotion.

Something came out of her emotions, her anger came out, the anger towards her mother she still felt easily, the hatred towards Jonah, the contempt for Ghidorah. She scratched Godzilla's skin with her nails.

But he didn't even feel it. "If I had decided against it from the beginning, I was stupid and naive, thought we would make the world a better place..." She had to sob briefly, "I gave my best and tried to stop the Titans... I knew he would come... I didn't care... I was ready for it". It was hard to decide against her own mother. As a child, almost only a teenager, but still accepting that she had to sacrifice herself to help others. She looked up at him, slightly blurred with tears in her eyes. She pressed her face into the hard leathery skin of his. "I...I could have prevented everything... no one had to die, but I was too weak to see it. I am sorry, I am sorry... Godzilla." Her tears felt like acid in her eyes. She let everything out, all her grief and anger.

Her heart beat like wild, she didn't even think what she was doing to embrace a huge 400 ft high monster? But even if he didn't understand her, she could now get rid of everything. Finally she could tell him directly how grateful and sorry it was for her.

For what she had done, what Emma had done to save the world from people's greed, but out of naivety she thought she was doing the right thing. Maddie thought so too, but contrary to her mother, she quickly realized: it's not the right thing to do.

"If only I'd turned on Mom from the beginning, she said it would help everyone. Did it? We almost murdered the planet. All the people on the streets... Mom said to Dad she had prepared me... I had a fair chance for what? For a life of death and chaos, living forever in a bunker? I just wanted the world to get better, as Andrew would have wanted it, she said. She told me that evil people would want to catch the monsters and use them, we had to prevent that. But what now? Even more people have now experienced things similar to me. Not only that, we have lost good friends, Serizawa, Vivienne, Tim...Mothra... I never wanted that... even you ..." Her breath stopped at the thought what happened because they woke Rodan.

* * *

_She watched Godzilla and Ghidorah being devoured by the gigantic fire of the Oxygen Destroyer. At that moment she had the feeling that just thousands of souls were crying out, she had never seen such destruction before._

_Also there, in Boston, Emma had established a connection to the Titans' bioacoustics, so she could see Godzilla's and Ghidorah's as well. Madison stood right in front of the field and had to watch Godzilla die for at least some time. Because she wasn't strong enough to stop her mother._

* * *

It took a few minutes for her to let go again, carefully she took a few steps away from him, wiped away the tears and breathed deep once. The cold air of the evening mixed with Godzilla's hot breath in her lungs.

Madison looked up at Godzilla. With his fiery orange eyes down on her, his gaze almost human, it looked worried. Carefully he leaned his head against hers. They closed their eyes. Madison felt his heartbeat, it became quiet around her.

No splashing of water, chirping of crickets or wiping of wind in trees. Only the slow throbbing of his heart. A slight hum came from him. Madison slowly felt comfortable again, as if something of hers was going to be a burden, finally she could tell someone.

Finally she could reveal all the feelings to whom she owed her life. Whatever this was, she was grateful for it.

Madison was starting to feel comfortable again, as if something was coming from her. _"Madison."_ A female voice holding through her head. It shocked her, her breath stopped, she looked around in a flash.

"Mom?" What was that? Did she go crazy? No, she was fine, it was probably just the shock.

Both opened their eyes again. When Maddie looked up at him, she noticed that he had a slight glimmer on his surface, it got lighter. Both turned their attention upwards.

A strange light appeared in the sky. She and Godzilla looked up, Madison's jaw dropped. The sky was full of colors, mostly greenish and blue tones mixed, like a beautiful fireworks display in the night sky. "Northern Lights." She whispered. It was relatively rare that they were here close to the equator, but it just looked so beautiful. A picture for eternity, even without camera or mobile phone, the lights reflected in her tearful eyes. Madison could see something, something strange, swearing up there in the light she would see wings spreading like an angel. Shooking her head briefly and stroked her face, rubbed her eyes, there were no wings, she probably only imagined it from fatigue. But she heard a soft cry in her head, it calmed her down slightly, her heart beat slower, her feelings came to a steady flow, they were there, but she managed to pull herself together again and smile a bit.

Godzilla looked up, for even a creature that was like a force of nature, such things were fascinating. He also realized that it was beautiful, but he couldn't quite grasp it as a kind of animal, but it gave him a kind of calming feeling just like Madison. Carefully he put his head to the floor and got ready to sleep again, he gave off a slight call. Madison turned around and sighed slightly, she somehow just wanted to sleep now, and recover from that day. She took a blanket she had sat on before, took the candle with her and put the bowl safely aside. She went over to Godzilla's right side, where she lay at his neck just behind his head.

With one try she spread the blanket on the cool and hard floor. The slightly cool wind that came from it almost blew out the candle, quickly she took it aside to not light something up. As she sat leaned with the blanket against Godzilla's rough skin, feeling herself less conscious.

Madison and Godzilla looked up at the night sky and fell asleep slowly. First Godzilla then her. What Madison didn't notice just before she fell completely asleep, a small blue butterfly flew on her shoulder and lay down there for a short rest.


	6. Past, Future, Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison is now on Skull Island with Godzilla and slowly learn why she was brought here, meanwhile Mark and the others are searching for his daughter, but time closes in. As they land in San Fransisco, they have to face a new Titan, much more dangerous then some of them before.

**Chapter 6: Past, Future, Present**

* * *

**Castel Bravo 5:00**

Mark woke up.

Mark wanted to turn off the loud ringtone of his mobile alarm clock, he hated the noise, it was a simple beeping that sounded quite relaxed, but he couldn't stand it. Which was actually the reason why he usually got up relatively quickly. But when he tried to lift his arm, he noticed that something heavy was lying on top of him. The blanket in front of him had built up and his chest was pressed down slightly, something soft and warm had settled on his legs.

"What the, oh..." he muttered. He pushed up the blanket. It was Ilene she was on top of him, she was asleep, half asleep. She muttered something about herself when she heard the alarm. "Mark, turn off the alarm." "Ilene, you're lying on my arm." He muttered a little quieter.

Ilene blinked her eyes open and with very sleepy eyes she lifted her head slightly, reached out her hand and grabbed the phone and pressed some button to turn it off. A loud pale sigh went through the room as Ilene dropped her head back onto Mark, her eyes closing again immediately even though she didn't fall asleep.

So it stayed for a few minutes until Mark was finally more awake. "Ilene." "Yes?" She pushed her head slightly forward towards him. "Why...never mind." She smiled at him. It was pretty clear to her that he just wanted to ask why she was lying here. But it didn't really matter to Mark now, looking at the situation.

"Good morning, handsome." She said, and gave him a kiss. Not on the head or the cheek, though. No, a proper one.

It wasn't the first one they'd shared, but it still felt special. Mark suddenly felt so much younger somehow. Newly in love, he said nobody could replace Ema but Ilene felt like the right one. Only he was insecure, if she found Madison again, he would have to explain it to her somehow. He was afraid she'd get angry or mad at him or even hate him. He knew she might think he was trying to replace Ema.

At least he still hadn't given up hope, and Ilene hadn't either.  
"I have a question."

"Yes Mark?"

"Why do you think Godzilla took Madison, really that story from ancient Japan?" she smiled at him and shook her head.

"Who knows, maybe he had a crush on her."

"Don't be silly, they're animals, monsters." Ilene sulked a little.

"I think that's a bit harsh." Mark rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Mothra and Godzilla were in symbiosis and that without being the same species."

"Yes but I mean, Mothra was a monster, I don't understand why a human could help them."

Ilene sighed, thinking back to what happened a few months ago.

"Mark, you and I, we saw... down in the hollow earth. We discovered a lost civilization and they, living with the Titans, worshipped them as gods..." Mark stroked his chin, realising that a shave would do him good again. "You think the reason Godzilla did this is the same reason humans worshipped the Titans."

Ilene laid her head on his chest and looked him straight in the eyes and he looked her back, he realized it felt right. "Maybe finding Madison again could help us solve the mystery, or if we solve it first, find Madison. I'm absolutely convinced we can do it."

Mark smiled again, he stroked her head, her hair was so wonderfully black. "What is Mark."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who still has hope." "I never give up hope for anyone."

Mark kissed her back. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He was sure she could be the one.  
"Sorry to bother you but-" Ford Brody came in, backpack and vest all ready to go. He wanted to say hello to Mark, but he caught a rather awkward moment.

Mark and Ilene stared over at Ford, which was odd. "Um, sorry, the door was unlocked."

"My fault." Said Ilene. Ford scratched the back of her neck.

"T-The mission's about to start, I should get Mark, but they're almost here."

"Good, it is noted Ford." He nodded at Mark and walked out relatively quickly.

"Please knock next time." Shouting after Mark. Ilene laughed at him. "Prankster." "Well, I gotta lighten the mood, right?" Ilene had a slight grin on her lips.

"Well, we should get ready. Foster's gonna kick my ass again." He wanted to get up and he noticed something. "Ehm Ilene...?" "Yes, Mark?"

"You don't have any pants on either?" Ilene nervously grabbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, why do you ask, you didn't notice?" Well, Mark blushed when he realized that he and Ilene were quite intimate at that moment.

"I don't think I've seen a red man like that since college."

"Well, guess when the last time I was like this was?" Ilene laughed, "Come on, Mark, we're adults, not teenagers." "Sigh... you're right."

* * *

**A few minutes later**

Mark paced up and down a little in his room, wondering all the time where Godzilla and Madison might have gone. He must have used the hollow earth, but Madison wouldn't survive. He looked down at his hand, made it into a fist together, but with a space in between. He stared thoughtfully back into the air before someone tapped him on the shoulder again. "Are we done?" "Uh, yeah, sure, quick, we should probably get a move on."

Mark and Ilene walked out of the room down the hall to the elevator, they met some others coming straight out of their quarters. colleagues, soldiers or just assistants. "Maybe we should do something tonight." "What are we doing down here on this base?" "There's a little movie theater downstairs in the canteen later today, I think it's showing an old Japanese movie." "Oh, one of those silly ones with costumes?" "Maybe it was something to do with a meteorite."

Arriving at the elevator, a rather younger voice called after them. "Dr. Russell, Dr. Chen!" The two turned around, it was one of their instructors, a man in his 20s with a light beard, brunette hair, jeans, and a red and white plaid shirt. "What's Gordon?" "Regarding the seminars" "You're assigned to assist in the labs, I have absolutely no time right now." "Understood, but-" "But nothing, I need to find my daughter." Gordon just nodded when Mark answered in a rather aggressive voice. He left shortly afterwards, knowing Dr. Russell was very tense and he didn't want to lose his job with Monarch.

When the elevator bell rang, the two of them turned around again, Ilene looked over at Mark, she thought his attitude towards students was very rough at the moment. A soldier got out and just tapped them with his hat. The door closed with a slight groan of metal against the wall. The base was deep down in a cave, halfway down a window that was open to look through. Mark looked out and leaned against the wall, saw the skull of the Muto hanging frozen, he found it strange sometimes that the base had been designed with emphasis on something like windows, furniture and simple architecture. It was probably to keep people here from completely losing touch with humanity in a world full of monsters.

He felt a slight pointing on his shoulder. "You were pretty rough on him." "Hm?" Mark turned to Ilene, who pulled him out of his little daydream. "I'm sorry but I just don't feel very well today." Ilene smiles at him and slid closer to him. "Despite this morning?" "I mean, sure, but to lose Madison just thinking about it. It was, like, 20 feet. If only been quicker." "It's not your fault." Ilene held his hand really tight, looked right into his eyes.

"But I-" "Mark, please. I told you before, you don't have to feel guilty about Ema getting Madison into Monarch. She thought it would be good for her, and maybe it'll help her now that Godzilla's with her. I would be proud to have such a strong daughter." She hugged Mark to comfort him. She felt him tremble, perhaps with anger or fear or sadness. "B-But... What if I never see her again?" "We will, I promise." It calmed down, only the creaking of the elevator going up was heard with a slight metallic scratch. "Ilene?" "Yes Mark?" "I can't breathe." She let go of him, sometimes she overestimated herself a little. Mark once took a deep breath and let out a slight sigh.

Ilene smiled at him as she looked down at his collar. "Let me fix it." The elevator would take a little longer. "You were in such a hurry today, you'll have time to fix your jacket." "Hey, it's not important to me, as long as I'm on time." Ilene shook her head, grinning. "Do you have any plans for tonight?" She asked him, he raised his eyebrow slightly. "What do you think?" "Maybe we should rest up after the mission, you were all done yesterday." "Er...", Mark scratched his head, Ilene was done adjusting his collar, "what did you have in mind?" "Well-" a loud ringing sounded, the lift was up. Ilene immediately stepped aside, she wanted to keep it a little secret they were together. Ford would, hopefully, not say anything.

A cold gust of wind came towards them, the sea air brought a right fresh but also salty smell. The helicopter was already ready, a few soldiers went over the field and transported boxes, mostly with rations or ammunition. Some workers repaired the part of the platform destroyed by Godzilla. With welding equipment and other tools metal parts were cut off and transported away. The small control room, which helped to start the helicopters, was also completely destroyed. Mark looked at it as he walked by. Just put his hand on it and there was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. Fortunately, no one was hurt, almost certainly. Ford was already waiting at the door of the helicopter with a relatively normal outfit, leather jacket, T-shirt Jean pants. All he had was a belt with a gun and some extra equipment. Ilene noticed something strange about him, he seemed very, satisfied with a slight smile on his face.

"Does that make us all?" Mark asked him as they came in. "Three guesses, man." Stanston called out to him when they got inside. He had a laptop in his lap and a Coffee To Go in his hand. "Good morning to you too, Rick." Said Ilene. Other than that, there was Barnes talking to the pilot a minute ago. Ford sat down next to Rick, buckled his belt. Mark and Ilene sat across from him. He still had that slight smile on his face.

"What happened today to make them so happy?" Mark asked him directly. He had a slight uneasy feeling about it. Ford just nodded slightly and then turned to Barnes who had just finished with the pilot. "Well, folks, we're gonna be sweeping the West Coast today, making a stopover for San Francisco at Outpost 14B."

Mark looked away from Barnes, also with a slight smile on his face. "Interesting." "If anyone sees anything, report immediately to Dr Coleman and Foster on the Argo. It'll take us a couple of hours to get there, so try to relax." Mark nodded, "a good idea." He let himself fall into the armchair and closed his eyes, breathing in and out deeply, he was still slightly tired.

There was only one thing on his mind the whole time, though, Madison. He thought back when she was little, when he held her in his arms to keep her quiet. Maddie was always a bright kid, always wanted to do something, always new knowledge. Andrew, he's the one she used to play with, they were brother and sister, always helping each other out. Losing him so early, she could kinda take it, but unlike Mark, she never had that hatred for Godzilla. Ilene was right, he started drinking, got sloppy, out of grief. But Madison, she always wanted to know more about Godzilla, about the monsters. Maybe it was this strength of hers that didn't take away his hope of finding her again.

* * *

**Skull Island**

Madison had woken up and was walking through the village with Aaron. Godzilla was still lying by the river, sleeping on his stomach, his tail squeezing just past the wall. He rested in peace, a rest after the battle.

"What do you know about this place?" Aaron asked her, he wanted to know more about this mystery girl. "over skull island, well i had rather limited access," she grabbed her chin and stared into the void to think. "You work for Monarch, right?" Maddie shook her head. "No, my father's there, he's recently rehired." "Recently rehired? He left Monarch once?" "Yeah. It's a long story." "I'd love to hear it sometime, but tell me now, what exactly do you know about this?" He stretched out his arms like he was showing her the whole island. "So far, only a handful of people have seen this island and survived. It's a deadly island, full of different animals from the monster days. Titanus Kong, who is regarded as the king of the island, keeps it in balance."

Aaron nodded to her.  
A group of the natives came to them, looking like the tribal leaders. Aaron and she looked at each other briefly. Maddie took a closer look at the Iwi, as they were called. They all wear simple clothing which they fabricate and dye within their village. Iwi soldiers or guards typically seem to wear red garb with yellow body paint. Others, possibly clergy members, instead wear purple robes. Lastly, it appears that elders of the tribe wear blue robes and body paint.

"Welcome, what is your name?" The largest of the group spoke to her. Madison blinked her eyes briefly, she hadn't heard the Iwi speak. "Wait, you can talk?" "My name is Ato. My father learned your language from a man named Marlow, and Aaron also helped us to understand it better. We continue to learn this language to help people like Aaron and you. So what is your name?" She hesitated briefly, she felt nervous, everyone stared at her with an expectation set. "M-Madison... Madison Russell. Y-You can call me Maddie." "Madison." Ato nodded. "We'd like to know, were you the one who came with the god?" He pointed at Godzilla, she turned around, saw his gigantic back spines in the corner of her eye. "Y-Yes. He, He protects me, I think." "You're not sure of this?" "No, I, he took me away, from my father." Ato nodded again. "We believe we know why the god of gods does this. Follow us." He pointed to the wreck of the ship with his hand outstretched, pointing to what lay further up the village.

On the way, Madison asked, "W-We're going to the temple, right?" "Yes, you might find the answer to your question there." "Maybe, it's all so confusing." "All in time. I'd like to ask you a question too." Madison looked up to him, he was about 2 heads taller than her, had blue painting and clothes with yellow accents. "What do you call in your language, the God." "I, eh, we call him Godzilla. A friend of mine also called him Gojira." Ato nodded again.

"Have we met this friend before?" "No, he was where Aaron was before. Me and him, we were actually good friends, only we didn't see each other much." "You always talk about him, with was. What happened?" "He-He sacrificed himself for G-Godzilla." Madison fasted her arm, slightly embarrassed by the whole thing. Remembered back, just after 2014. Ema had become very involved, especially after her orca prototype helped Godzilla defeat Muto Prime. Maddie and many others thought she was a hero then, she felt a little better, or so it seemed, but Andrew's death had left a deep scar.

Emma and Serizawa were also good friends and worked closely together. And that's why he offered to watch Maddie every once in a while. He volunteered because Emma wanted Madison to get into Monarch, and she wanted to know everything, just as the littel Maddie was at that time.

* * *

_"Uncle Ishiro?" "What is it Maddie?" He was just with her in Boston, sitting in a chair, reading the paper. "Why were Mom and Dad fighting?" Mark had just moved away, and Emma was getting ready to move to China. "Well, since your brother left, the two of them are very sad and don't get along well." Little Madison looked down sadly, Serizawa sighed and leaned over to her. "There's more, isn't there?" He asked calmly, with his Japanese accent. "Why did Godzilla kill Andrew?" It was quite difficult for her to deal with death at such a young age. Ishiro took off his glasses._

_"Sometimes nature is cruel to us, even if it does not mean to be. Gojira, he embodies a balance of nature, a natural order." "I thought he was just a monster?" "I know your parents will have told you this because they are sad and angry. I understand them, but sometimes you can't do anything about these things." "I understand." Maddie looked down at the floor again with her arms flaccid. Ishiro tapped her on the head, "You must be hungry? What do you want?" "Um, are you making those rice balls again?" Serizawa smiled at her._

* * *

"Sorry to hear that." Ato said to her, " but I guess this is where your story and your questions may be answered." They were at the temple now. Hundreds of years ago, the Iwi rebuilt this ship into its interior. It was sacred ground for them, and Madison knew it was important to be careful what you touch.

It was an old ship, mostly built with metal but also some wood, which was already slightly moldering as it overgrown with moss and small plants. Madison wondered a little, how did this ship, the S.S. Wanderer, get here? Her first thought, which was only logical, must have been Kong or some other monster. But her breath faltered as she stepped into the room, fear took over hand, she trembled. One image, just one image managed to do that, to awaken bad memories.

Ghidorah. It was painted on the wall to her right, with skull crawlers crawling out of the floor. It was a rather primitive but clear drawing. "A few months ago, a storm broke out and with it, we heard the cries, the one who is many. The devils awoke. They were under his control. But our king, he saved us from the great disaster and attacked them." Ato pointed his hand to the right side, a picture of the giant skull crawler fighting Kong with little figures that looked like people.  
"But our king was hurt in spite of everything and let the beast escape. But at the same time, the one who is many fell silent. We heard the sounds of the one God, the God of Gods. " Aaron turned aside. On the wall in the center of the room she saw him, Godzilla. It looked almost like Boston.  
"H-How did you know what they looked like?" A younger woman, also wearing blue, with her hair tied back in a braid, went forward and reached out to her. "My name is Ikimi. I am a seer of the Iwi." "Seer?" "Descendant of the great seer Atentua." "I don't understand..." Aaron stayed a little behind and was rather quiet, he didn't want to talk in between. Imiki spoke very little English and preferred to speak in her normal language. "I can see things that are happening or have happened." She kept reaching out to Madison. "Should I...?" Ikimi nodded. Madison touched her hand, but she immediately pulled it back.

Madison's head began to thump, a high-pitched sound came out of nowhere. Small images appeared before her eyes. She screamed in pain and a lot on her knees. But nobody helped her up again.

* * *

_Dark memories, nightmares came up "I love you," "Madison..." "Ghidorah," "Run!" "Skreeeeeeeooongh!" "NO!" A loud roaring sound through her head, like a screaming angel, "Moth...ra." A bright light appeared, two wings spread out._

* * *

Aaron looked at the other tribe oldest, they shook their heads. He would like to help, but she had to go through it. "Stop it!" She lay on the floor, hands glued to her head, eyes pinched together, but the shreds didn't stop.

Godzilla moved his head up, he noticed that something strange was happening. He looked down at himself to see the little person he had brought with him. But she was gone. Worried, he looked over the village in front of him, shaking his head slightly, panting deeply. He supported himself with his arms to push his head even higher and then let out a short roar. The village stopped his activities and started quietly and straight on the Titan. Full of expectation he looked around the ship, turning his head slightly to the side. Godzilla realized she was in there but there was something else.

Slowly and carefully, he laid his head down again, but was ready to get up again immediately. With his orange eyes, he stared at the S.S. Wanderer High.

And with that, the pain disappeared and everything sounded normal again. As she looked to the side, the tears rolled to the floor. Her expression was so lifeless. It took a few minutes for her to get back on her feet. Slowly she made it up, staring at Ato and Ikimi. "What... Happened." "You and Ikimi exchanged memories. Visions, memories, thoughts. Many years ago, there was a man here who also had visions. But they killed his mind, he went mad and hurt many Iwis."

Aaron gritted his teeth a little, he remembered it very well, the reason why he stayed here in the first place.

"But there's a light inside of you that shines." Madison looked at them both confused. "The god, Gojira, as you call him. He saw in you something that few can find." Ikimi continued Ato's words. "You helped defeat the one who is many. The light within you was awakened."

Ato spread his arms and led Madison on to the other paintings. The ones of Kong, whom she had seen in other paintings before.

"A great seer, Atentua, announced the arrival of the Awati." "Awati?" "The people who came from the sky." Aaron replied to Maddie's question. "I am a descendant of Atentua, we foretold your arrival." Told Imiki to Madison, the thing seemed to her slowly more and more strange.

Ato stopped at a picture, a picture of Kong against the Skull Crawlers, it was fresher than the others. "We saw the war between these two gods, the return of the Titans. The arrival of Gojira, was said ready many moons ago, bringing with it a special person."

Imiki moved closer to Maddie again and wanted to grab her hands but she stept back.

"But I, I'm just an ordinary person! I don't want to see this anymore. I want to get out of here." Surprisingly for Aaron, the tribe's elders nodded to her, despite the aggressive attitude of her.  
Madison was unsure, it seemed very vague to her, a vision? Thought transference? She didn't want to stay on this island for a long time, nor did she want to see more of these flashbacks, she felt so weak afterwards.

"What is this? Is this one of those Excalibur things? Am I the Chosen One?" Madison joked with a rather sarcastic tone, she wasn't very happy with it. "No. But Kong has disappeared, the great devil had chased him away. But should a king fall, a new one would appear."

Madison cautiously looked around once more, she had to look at Ghidorah's picture again, just a distraction to understand the whole thing. She didn't quite believe in this seer talk, but she could explain a little bit of logic. Kong, as she understood it, probably had to fight a big crowd, probably the very big one that Godzilla had defeated, and probably had to take a lot. Most likely he retreated somewhere in peace, even Godzilla already had some scars from it.

Kong usually keeps the island balanced, just like Godzilla keeps the other monsters and thus the Skull Crawlers. It was probably his natural instinct. At least now she partly knows why he came here, but she still didn't understand why he took her with him. "When the sun goes down today, we'll perform a ritual that you and Gojira will come together." Madison's eyes got bigger, she looked at Ato like someone just shot her. "What, ritual... what?" "A little backstory I can tell you about it, come on, I think you need some air." "Yeah, you might have... right Aaron..." The little shock felt her kick.

"Aaron, he'll explain it to you in more detail, we'll set it up." Madison just nodded at the other and stumbled slightly across the room, Aaron holding her arm again. Again, these memories were shattering and weakening her.

* * *

**San Fransico Outpost 14B**

"You could say home sweet home, couldn't you?" "In a way?" Ford didn't really listen to Rick's joke, he couldn't hear him well under the chopper's rotor blades noise. They had finally arrived in San Fransico, flying straight over the downtown buildings from the north, a beautiful view with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. They spotted a relatively large rather grey concrete building in the middle of China Town. Since 2014 a monarch base has been established. It looked more like a big office building, partly that was its purpose. But from there was a long fence that went to the back of a large open area around the former Muto Nest. After various samples were removed at that time, it was filled in and a small facility with vehicles and helicopters was built. Several warehouses on the right side were used as garage and ammunition storage.

"You probably expected a huge hole?" "That and another big gas explosion." He looked down at the field of helicopter flying carefully straight down. "Tell Ford, you still live here for real?" Barnes says, "Yeah, back there, way out of town. We were very lucky, the monsters had passed by our house. Many of our neighbours have moved away."

"Okay, everybody listen up." Barnes came in from the cockpit and made a little announcement, "We've been here about two hours, the tank is almost empty and there will be some minor maintenance. Meeting point is back in the helicopter. Dr. Rick, you come with me, we'll check in with Sam and Foster." "What about us?" Asked Ford, he bent over to get a better view of Barnes next to Rick. "You're on break." "Sounds great." "Yeah, doesn't it, Mark?" "Yeah, it never hurts to take a break." He murmured to Ilene. He stared out the window at the city and how the skyscrapers slowly grew bigger as they landed. It wasn't easy being back here in spite of everything that happened.

The city as such had recovered very well, most of the damage was repaired, at least in the city center. However, some external parts that had been destroyed were still not repaired and small residences turned into a ghost town. Many also lost their jobs, because which company would voluntarily continue to work in a city that was attacked by giant monsters and showed residues of radioactive material? That's why there were many neighborhoods living in poverty, but so it was in many cities that were attacked by Titans, people became homeless or fell into poverty.

"Are you okay, Mark?" Ilene whispered to him. "Yeah, it's just, I don't know, I have a bad feeling about this." "Say if you need anything." "I will. I promise."

And with a slight jerk, the helicopter touched down on the ground. Barnes and Rick went out first, followed by Mark, Ilene and Ford.

"Do you come here often, Ford? You know, on base?" "Yes, I came here often when Serizawa needed me." It was about 200 meters across from the building. Mark looked around, it was a very small base, probably about 500 meters in diameter. A jeep drove past them, it looked like the one Emma drove when they were in Boston. On the right side there were maybe 7 gunships and a radio tower. The wire mesh fence gave a view from the outside, it wasn't a secret base that needed to be sealed off for miles. It was strange to see something like that in a once booming metropolis.

"Ilene, Mark, have you got any plans?" "Um, not really." "I could do with a coffee." Mark said. Ford nodded and pointed at the Golden Gate Bridge. "Perfect. I know a little coffee place down the way. We can stop and have a break." The 200 metres felt like 2k to Mark, he hadn't eaten anything and still had a slight hangover from the head injury.

They went past the building, there was a gate in the fence on the side. Ford showed his ID to a guard who just nodded briefly and opened the gate. And not even 10 meters further they were already at the edge of China Town of San Fransico, with the well-known garlands that always hung on the roofs above. "I'm on the phone, I'll be right there." Ford unplugged his cell phone and walked a few feet to a street corner.

It seemed like there weren't many people in town, Mark remembered this used to be a crowded place, a busy neighbourhood. Now a couple of cars and a handful of people who were shopping at the shops drove around, it had a rather sad and gloomy atmosphere.

Mark stroked his light beard and looked up at the skyscrapers of the city, there have been a few since he was here, a lot of things have to be demolished. "Are you all right anyway?" "Yeah, it's going, it just feels weird to be back here." Ilene noticed that Mark did not feel well at all.  
Ford was done talking on the phone. "So, I just called and she's gonna pick us up." "Who's picking us up?" Ilene asked confusedly, "Just wait." Ford smiled slightly.

* * *

**12 minutes later**

"There she is!" Ford pointed to a red family car that just drove by  
and parked on the side of the road about ten yards from them. A blonde woman with long hair took off her sunglasses as she got out of the car and smiled at Ford.

Ford gave back this smile and walked towards her. He took her by the hip while she put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Mark scratched his neck, Ilene just stared somewhere in the air, they were both a bit embarrassed.

"I missed you." The woman said to him, "I missed you too." She gave him another kiss on the cheek. They let go of each other as she closed the door. Ford said, "Where's Sam?" "He's at school. He's out later." A slight sigh came from Ford. He wanted to see his son. They went over to Mark and Ilene's house, and she reached out to her. "Hi, I'm Ellen, Ford's wife. "I'm Dr. Ilene Chen and this is Dr. Mark Russell." "It's a pleasure to me you. I can see why Ford was in such a good mood today." She and Mark shook hands. Ford cleared his throat briefly, "The coffee shop is not far, but I thought the car would save us time anyway." "It's about time, I'm starving." Mark laughed a little, Ilene rolled her eyes with a slight smile. The car didn't really look like much, a normal family car. It was a relatively dark red, the paint told Mark that it had probably been in use for some time. The seats were true black and made of cloth, when he got in he noted that it was relatively comfortable.

* * *

**An hour later**

Ilene and Ellen were just sitting at a table outside the restaurant, with coffee and cake, laughing a little at stories they told each other. It was a bit windy but not so cold at the moment, it had just become autumn. The café was just outside the entrance to China Town, walking down a small hill where many trees with orange coloured leaves. The building was in a rather old style, but the cafe itself was rather modern, with glass walls from the outside. Ford and Mark were just inside and were about to pay for the food. Mark already pulled out his wallet, but Ford stopped him. "Leave it with me, mate. The bill's on me." "Oh, thanks." "Can I get you a beer?" Mark shook his head, he wanted to avoid alcohol right now, it might put him back in a bad way. "No thanks, a glass of water will do." "All right, waiter, a water and a beer!"

Ford looked back through the glass door at Ilene and Ellen, who seemed to be having a good time. "Our wives seem to be getting along pretty well, don't they? "Yeah...By the way, Ford, could you keep this morning's business to yourself, me and Ilene haven't had much space to say about it, especially about Maddie." Ford nodded, the bar tender gave them a glass of water and a beer, "Thank you." Said Ford and took a sip.

Meanwhile, Ellen asked Ilene a few things, sort of like a normal gossip. "So what's it like working for Monarch? Must be exciting for a secret government agency that goes on a monster hunt." With a slight smile, Ilene put her cup of green tea on the table. A gentle breeze blew the steam to the side.

"Well, I shouldn't say much, but people put their lives on the line and we're not even soldiers, we're just ordinary sientists." "Well I wouldn't exactly call studies of Titans normal." "Well, in the future it will." "I just hope things get better, Titans are really not a joke. I was also locked up in San Fransico in 2014, I had to as a nurse." Ellen turned her gaze to Golden Gate Bridge, with a rather sad face. "That doesn't sound good." "It wasn't, I was in a shelter with many others, the building collapsed right above us when two monsters fought... but I and some others survived it, we were very lucky."

Ilene took a sip of her tea, it was interesting to listen to Ellen, to see how such things can affect others. "Do you have children?" She asks Chen, who choked on her tea for a moment. "No, meanwhile, not really planned. I hear you have a son." "Yeah, Sam, he's in school right now, he's gonna go to college soon." "Oh how old is he?" "16." "Was he in San Fransico in 2014 too?" "No, his bus made it across the bridge on time, a friend of mine made it across I wanted...had to help people."

Ilene crossed her arms and let out a big sigh. It was Monarch's job to protect people in secret but it hadn't helped as much as it should have. Ellen noticed that she seemed a little down, especially when she looked over at Mark. "Is something wrong?" Ilene hesitated a little, she wasn't sure if she wanted to say it. "It's because of Mark, he was also with Monarch then in 2014, but he hadn't made it out of San Fransico...his son died...because of Godzilla, or so he always says."

Slightly shocked, it became quiet for a minute, the feeling of a strong uneasiness came out.  
"You and Mark are married?" A question that all too easily embarrassed Ilene. "Eh no, he's only just, um," With a guilty look she looked over at Mark at the restaurant, "his wife has just died." "Oh, my God, that's..." "horrible?" "yes." It's understandable that it's not very pleasant to talk about someone's death. It wasn't very pleasant for Ilene, especially the way Emma was involved in the whole thing. She wasn't angry with Emma, at least not for a long time like she was on the Argo. _"That bitch!"_ Words she preferred to take back. She had no children, so she had little idea how such things could affect parents.

Mark and Ford were talking inside. "How are you doing?" "Huh?" Mark was confused, Ford seemed to want to have a little chat. "In general, it seems to be very hard for you." A slight nod with a sigh came from Mark, he didn't really want to talk about it too much. "I'm sorry if I-" "No it's ok...Yeah it's not easy, first Emma wakes up an ancient monster to carry out her crazy plans, then she dies and I almost lose Maddie and now what? Fuck this." Frustrated, Mark gritted his teeth. "Maybe I shouldn't have talked about this." "No, you know, I haven't said a word about how I feel about this crap. My son, my wife and now my daughter are now gone and I have littel to nothing left of my family." He flips over to the waiter, "Give me a beer." "No, he doesn't want one." Ford interrupted him, he had offered him one before, but he knew exactly when not to give a beer to an angry man.

"Listen, buddy, I don't know what I'd do if I lost Ellen or Sam, but drinking yourself into a stupor is not gonna help, what would Dr. Chen or Madison think?"

Somehow in a slight shock, Mark stared into the air and made a thoughtful face, turned around and saw Ilene chatting with Ellen. He didn't know what about, probably better that he didn't know anyway. Maybe there was a future that looked a little more beautiful than now. Madison was most likely dead, even he couldn't lie himself forever that she was alive. Even with Ilene's insane statement that monster and man were connected.

But maybe he could start over with her, maybe an old door needs to close to open a new one.  
But sometimes the horror of the present doesn't leave you behind. Mark's hope was shattered in less than a second into nothing but splitters.

An earthquake made the cafe shake, you could hear all the cups and glasses shaking. Mark looked around in shock, seeing other people running out of the house in fear and panic. His and Ford's gaze immediately turned to Ellen and Ilene who had grabbed with their hands on the table outside to avoid falling over, something Mark should have done in the next two seconds as his stool toppled over.

He hit his head back on the hard wooden floor, everything went black for a while. "Fuck, aah." He moaned as the pain went through his head and caused an high tone. Ford immediately jumped off the stool to pick it up again. The quake faded, but now you could gradually feel the trembling of something, like footsteps. "Come on up, boy." Mark couldn't quite understand him, his ears just rang and everything sounded so suppressed. Then the roar in Mark's tone became quiet and something else, much louder sounded.

It sounded as if a storm was coming up from the sea, a storm filled with hate and anger.  
When Ford had helped Mark up, he didn't even say anything but ran out to Ilene who also hung on to him slightly. He opened the glass door and went straight to her. She hugged him and touched his face. "Ilene, are you good?" "I do, more importantly, how are you?" "It, aaaahh." The pain pulsed through his head again as if someone was stabbing him with a knife. He writhed, but was released when the monster roared.

Like a rabbit hearing a warning call, he looked to the sea, to the Golden Gate Bridge. Ford had come out, he and Ellen just needed to take a few glances to see that they were all right, for now.

All 4 stared at it while others ran away in panic as it passed the Golden Gate Bridge and roared angrily.

It was big, very big. Maybe even slightly taller than Godzilla, but apparently there was some kind of cam or fin on its head, which made it appear much taller from its own height, but a bit slimmer in stature. It had scaly, red orange skin. It stood upright, with a slight flexion as it moved forward. It had a yellow belly which was divided by larger scales or armour plates. On its back it had a kind of long fin which became smaller from the beginning and then changed in the tail with a very large, fishy fin. Its snout was long drawn, had many pointed teeth which it showed well when it roared again, behind the mouth there was again a kind of fins on both sides which looked very small. The arms were quite long, had three fingers with claws, which looked almost made to slit up enemies, in between were apparently webbed fingers.

The legs were quite sturdy, which caused enormous vibrations when he went ashore at the harbour.

"Doc, what kind of monster is that?" Ford asked, with a very intimidating tone in front of this creature. "Ilene?" Mark looked at her, he hardly knew all the names by heart and usually only used them when he had to.

Fearfully she spoke: "One of the oldest we found after Godzilla and the Mutos. In many legends he is only called the Titan of the water, only through him we called the monsters Titans. We call him-" Then the monster turned in her direction and roared up the hill where they stood on it.

"Titanosaurus."

* * *

**20 minutes before Titanosaurus attacked**

Barnes went over to a control desk with a cup of coffee, similar to the one at Castel Bravo, where Rick was sitting as usual, analyzing the data. They searched so much space, but where Godzilla had gone? It was more likely to find a needle in a haystack right now.  
On a screen, he was talking to General Foster.

"So, the same old Dr. Stanston?" "Three guesses? All right, yes nothing, nada, niente. The big one took off somewhere, probably through the hollow earth." "But the access was destroyed?" "Maybe there was someone else?" Rick shrugged when he said that, he had no proof. "We had lost him relatively quickly, we don't know how or where. Just like we did with Ghidorah, the old one destroyed every drone in the vicinity." Foster just nodded. "Any sign of Dr. Russell's daughter?" "I don't think it's getting any better." "Listen, Dr. Stanston, the mission is supposed to find Godzilla because we can't control where he is." "Could we ever?" Barnes give a remark. With a rather belated look, Foster turned back to Rick. "Listen, I'm doing this as a favor to Dr. Russell, but I can't do any more if the target is virtually impossible to-" The connection broke, the screen froze.

And only seconds later, the lights went out. Only the windows that shone in from the flight bursting the sun gave a slightly better view in the otherwise dark room. "What the hell is going on?" Rick fled when an assistant said, "Someone's doing this from somewhere else. I have no control over-" boom boom boom boom. Everyone was staring at the right door to the hallway when gunshots were fired, screams from people who were about to end with a bang. Everyone panicked, only Rick and Barnes managed keeping it cool.

Several men with guns ran in and shouted, "Hands up!" They drove most of the personnel or guards into the corner or took all weapons and electronic items from them. Only Barnes, Dr. Rick and one assistant were not brought over with the others. "You three stay with the desk. The boss needs you." "The Boss?" Asked Rick slightly sarcastically, which he would regret very quickly when his face was only inches from the end of an assault rifle.

"Quiet, please!" Said a voice, quite loud, out of the hall. The people who panicked first fell silent and a man walked out of the dark passageway, one Dr. Rick and Barnes knew all too well.  
"What a pleasant reunion." Said a rather old man with a bald head and white beard, and military equipment, which was anything but legal.

"Jonah." Rick whispered. "No welcome?" "What do you want?" Barnes asked immediately, in a relatively confident voice, but he was also just scared for his life. He might have been part of a team to light up giant monsters, but even he had no chance against a dozen men with assault rifles without a weapon, and three of them pointed at him.

Jonah Alan, the awakener of Ghidorah. He grinned at Barnes and Rick, he could tell all too easily if someone was afraid, although he didn't want to show it.  
"Oh, you are gonna help me send a signal."


	7. Fight for Dominance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark, Ford and Ilene are trapped in San Fransisco as Jonah managed to bring the ancient Titans Titanosaurus and Anguirus to fight over their dominance. Now they have to stop him or it will turn into another catastrophe, more dangerous then before.

**Chapter 7: Fight for Dominance**

Titanosaurs, the Titan of water. He roared loudly at the city that lay before him, full of these little creatures. Since his awakening he had to deal with the people in his territory several times.

He was an experienced fighter who had mastered the water for a long time and attacked everyone in his territory who enters it without his knowledge, even the Alpha. In fact, he himself was one of the Titans who had fought King Ghidorah for supremacy as the Alpha a long time ago. Old scars testified to this, and he was not easy to finish.

He let out a loud roar, the air in the bay was whirled through as if a plane was about to take off. His pointed teeth were clearly visible, if they bit into something they would not let go so easily. The calls of the alpha sounded through his head, he wanted to fight it but didn't hesitate for long and started knocking down buildings as if they were houses of cards.

He growled angrily and gritted his teeth. But suddenly he felt a small, hot pain in his neck, which was followed only a short time later by another explosion.

Angry, he turned around and saw some helicopters flying in front of him, which had just fired rockets at him.

* * *

"We have to get back to base quickly, I don't think the helicopters can do anything." Ford said when he, Mark, Ilene and his wife Ellen ran to the car. Ilene did not hesitate for long and wanted to contact the base immediately.

"Rick, Rick, do you read me, Roger?" No answer, just static. "Rick?! Rick?! What the hell is going on over there?" She shouted into the radio, but there was no answer.

"There must be somebody there. Who else gave the helicopters their start?" Asked Mark when they jumped into the car. Everyone slammed the doors shut, Ellen immediately pressed the gas pedal towards the base, the tires squeaked on the road and caused a little bit of smoke.

"The helicopters are independently separated from the base. If a monster shows up, the first order is to distract it." Said Ford, looking back. Mark and Ilene who were just sitting in the back of the car turned around too.

Titanosaurus just almost grabbed one of the helicopters but just missed it. But a house in front of him collapsed under the Titan's enormous weight, as if it was made of cardboard. Again, rockets hit his back and caused slight pain, which was more annoying than really serious.

"Ellen, I need you to deliver us to the base, pick up Sam and take him to safety. Let's hope the choppers distract him long enough."

"If we don't reach the base and call the Argo, I doubt it." Said Mark, he wanted to be optimistic but their chances looked anything but good. Every step the titanosaurus took, you could clearly feel a mini earthquake.

The helicopters circled it slowly, carefully and at a certain distance. Another load of rockets struck the reddish-orange skin of the monster. Now extremely irritated, the Titan stomps further forward, exactly in the direction of the alpha calls. The asphalt crumbles to small pieces under his feet, cars are crushed like in a press. Titanosaurus swings his right hand to the side, pushing half of a whole building to one side - the debris flies down with dust and glass. Meanwhile, people flee in panic from the monster, he doesn't even realize they are there, doesn't hear the screams that he causes.

* * *

"What are you up to?" Rick asked Jonah. With a grin on his face, which was anything but friendly, Jonah turned to him. "oh, why are you asking me?" "I don't think I'm gonna survive, at least I'd like to know what I'm dying for." A quiet laugh came from Jonah and he tapped himself on the head with his index finger.

"You have my humor Doc. I will not, of course, tell you anything that could help you or Monarch in any way, except if you survive here. But isn't it obvious?" Jonah pointed to a big screen that just showed titanosaurus.

"A giant monster." Barnes said. He was standing behind Rick with his hands behind his back and a guard with a gun pointing at him.

"That's right, a Titan, under my control. Thanks to this device." He turned towards an open suitcase. There was a display on him that showed some kind of audio wave, beating in a steady stream.

"A modified device based on the ORCA. Dr Emma Russell at the time took the liberty of providing me with some blueprints."

"And what else do they need this for?" Even bravely Rick asked, sounding more serious, knowing that he was unlikely to survive. Jonah didn't usually keep witnesses alive that long, so he took advantage of that.

"After resurrecting the three comedians named Ghidorah aka Monster Zero and wiping out nearly half the world, all the Titans were awake. Why would you need a device to wake them up?"

Jonah lost his smile, Rick asked him too many questions. With a quick nod, he let two armed guards come to him.

"Man does not seem to bend to nature, now I have to help nature." He turned and looked out the window. "You are making sure your base continues to transmit our signals nicely."

"Someone will notice that no one here is answering." Barnes called out behind him. "I hope so." Jonah laughed after him, didn't even turn around.

* * *

Ellen depressed the brake pedal hard, the tires screeching as the car dragged on for several inches. Mark and Ilene got out immediately and slammed the door shut.

Ellen gave Ford a final goodbye kiss, hoping it would not be the last. "Help the people." She said, Ford nodded with a slight smile, he got out and Ellen drove off immediately, with light tears in her eyes and the monster behind them

But the time was not there to waste, Titanosaurus was on its way and the helicopters would never stop him, nothing man-made could. The group ran to the gate where they had gone out before, but something seemed to bother Ford, something was different. Just as they were about to run through, a soldier stopped them at the gate, it was not the same as before.

"Hey, mr. This is a closed zone. Go with the other civilians to a shelter."

"I know, we're with Monarch." Mark said next to him, Ford was unsure of the situation.

"I'm still gonna have to ask you to evacuate."

"Hey, did Sargent Johnson give you the order?"

"Yes, he did," said the man in a very irritable voice, holding his gun tighter, "now you go with the other civilians or- Ugh." Ford hit him with the gun he had drawn out, on his head, the man tried to reach for him but passed out as he fell to the ground.

"What the hell, Ford?!" "This ain't no Monarch Soldier."

"How do you know?!" yelled Ilene. "There is no Sargent Johnson. I know almost everybody here, and if there's a monster, every soldier should be at the airfield to help."

He picked up the assault rifle that the wrong guard dropped, took a quick look at it. It was not a Monarch-approved weapon, but he recognized it from somewhere else. He grabbed a magazine out of the man's pocket and took the safety off. "Apparently we've been infiltrated, and something tells me it has something to do with the monster."

Ilenen and Mark looked at each other. "I know a person who would do something like this." "We have to-"

But the angry roar of Titanosaurus, followed by an explosion, interrupted the conversation. A helicopter whirled smoke around in circles downwards, into a building, where it burst into flames and caused it to collapse.

Titanosaurus had already caught three of the six helicopters, they could do almost nothing against him. Its skin was too thick and resistant, it couldn't be penetrate by the missiles.

With a strong blow of his long claw he hit for another one, but missed only by a view meters as the helicopter swerved out, but for this he scratched a huge long furrow through a building, concrete crumbled like dry earth, cables and metal pillars struck out.

With its powerful jaws, Titanosaurus snapped after the helicopters, paying less attention to its surroundings and stomping almost everything on the ground. The pilot tried to lure him back into the bay, but he had come only a little bit closer.

"Shit that was close, it won't let go." Said the pilot to the plane. "Charlie 1, we're running low on fuel and ammo, why isn't there any backup?!" Said the gunner.

The three helicopters circled him and took him under fire, angrily shaking his head and flailing about. But something stopped him, he stood still, not bothered by the slight pain of the bullets hitting him. He let out a quieter, deeper sound. He felt something, the prestige of something familiar, he turned to the sea.

"Hey what's wrong with him? He's stopped." "Delta 1, take a look at this. Over." A radio message came in.

Something big was moving in the water, like a giant shadow below the surface, strong waves were coming in. With a loud roar of the sea, a small hill of water slowly piled up. A large, dark brown body broke through the surface of the water, the creature's tail rose out of the water and whipped down onto the water, splashing wildly. In a strongly bent posture it slowly lifted its head, with spikes all over its neck and back and a larger horn on its nose, an elongated snout and sharp claws on its paws.

It opened its mouth, a loud roar went through the air, it held angrily through the bay, the people on the bridge who were just fleeing looked down as if an old king had just returned.

**"Mrrraawww!"**

"Dr. Chen, what kinda Monster is that?" She was standing there like she couldn't believe it. She'd only seen a monster like that once before in her life. "It's not... "

"Chen!?" Ford yelled out loud, even though it wasn't his style, just the situation was anything but good.

"We weren't sure, only once Anguirus was sighted, we thought he was dead." When Ilene said it, the Ancient Titan stomped on the land. He walked on four legs, his claws dug into the hard concrete with his enormous weight, creating large imprints. The water on his back flowed down into the harbor, small fish fell from his back to the ground and fidgeted wildly.

Titanosaurus was at that moment as surprised as the people around him. Anguirus looked much smaller compared to him, maybe just under 90 meters high, but he was much longer and more massive.

The two monsters were facing each other and standing rigidly, the tension was extremely high, if there was a fight, it could turn the city into a pure debris field again.

Anguirus began to snort and bared his teeth. With the claws on his hind legs were digging firmly into the ground to get a better grip. Carefully and slowly he stood on his hind legs to appear taller and let a rumbling sound of himself to intimidate. Titanosaurus was confused but he growled back, shook his head and let out a loud roar.

"Dr. Chen, what's happening?" "I'm not sure, but it looks like they're communicating."

"This is probably about food, fight or -" but before Mark could finish his sentence, the situation escalated completely.

Titanosaurus stormed forward and tried to hurt Anguirus with his sharp claws. But Anguirus is not only fast, he is also cunning, he was an experienced fighter just like Titano.

Fast and agile, he jumps to the side, dodging the attack and managing to return a punch with his thorny tail. The sharp-pointed braids cut into Titano's thighs and scraped large scratches into the leathery skin.

Surprised by the great pain in his leg, he snaps forward and roars out of his throat, coming loud enough to make windows shatter. There was enough time for Anguirus to attack again, he concentrated on an attack from behind. He bit into Titano's fin at the end of the tail, the thin skin ripped immediately and started bleeding, the pain made Titano extremely angry. He spinned around and caused even more damage but Angilas pulled him back, like when two siblings argue and the older one pulls the younger one back by the collar. Teeth snarling, the old Titan growled, he had had enough of it. He swung his tail to the side and with such power that Anguirus got actually thrown to the side.

The armored Titan was not prepared for this and crashed with his back to the side into a building that was immediately swallowed up in a huge cloud of dust, but that would not beat him by a long shot. With a tremendous leap Angilas jumped out of the cloud, curled up in the air into a spiky ball and crashed directly into Titan's stomach.

The group had watched for a while, but Ford was quick to insist, "We must get inside before the monsters devastate the city, for the second time." They ran through the gate, the airfield felt all empty with the helicopters gone. Once around the corner, Ilenen was frightened and had to hold back a short scream, in front of the entrance to the building lay the bodies of two soldiers.

Ford gritted his teeth, "I think we might have an idea who did this." They ran to the body, maybe one was alive, but no. Ford checked their equipment, they both had a light assault rifle and a handgun.

"Do you both know how to use weapons?"

"Yeah, basic rifle training." Ford nodded at him, took the soldier's gun and handed it to him, Mark took it without much hesitation. "The safety's off, and you're Dr. Chen?" "Hand me the M16." Ford nodded in surprise that she knew what she was doing, but he didn't hesitate.

Carefully, the three of them walked over to the entrance. Ford looked around nervously the whole time. The door was locked, but Ford took a red chip card out of his pocket and put it on a display that would override the lock.

A low beeping sounded and the sliding door opened slowly. With caution the lights were off, the only things that were still on were the computers and small emergency lights on the walls that covered the whole room in a light red.

Ilene and Mark had to hold back again, there were some people on the floor, colleagues and soldiers, shot. Ford was pissed, whoever did this would pay for it.

Mark wondered, there was only one person who could do such a thing.

As she headed to the right was a corridor leading to an elevator that went up to the control room.

"I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to shoot us the way through." Ford made a comment as he reloaded his gun.

"What do you mean, "me" ?" Ford sighed.

"I appreciate your help, but I'm a trained soldier, you senior monarch staff. My priority is to defend you and help our people."

Another roar from outside made the earth tremble.

"If we can even do that." Said Mark.

* * *

Anguirus had pressed Titanosaurus to the ground and laid his heavy paws on its rib cage. The building on top of Titano continued to collapse like a rotten log. The two looked at each other with their faces very close together, Anguirus bared his theet, growling loudly.

A light, pathetic roar came out as Titanosaurus lashes out and punches everything to crumble. Cars, concrete, buildings everything swept around and flew through the air like Lego bricks in a child's room. Titano's head hurt, very much, he felt a sharp, very hot pain behind his head that went all the way forward through his forehead. But Anguirus had nothing to do with it, he tried to avoid further attacks and was confused about Titanos behaviour.

* * *

"Let's see how our armored friend will do. Turn up the signal."

"Sir, that might overload it and we lose control." "I said, boost the signal."

The henchman Jonahs followed the old mans order, probably a mixture of respect and fear.

"Sir, if the other monster finds out-" "He won't know we're gone by then." Jonah said.

Stanton looked more than confused at the device he had brought with him. He knew exactly what the ORCA looked like, and after what happened in Boston, the idea of rebuilding the ORCA was considered, with great protest from Mark, of course. However, he did get a few blueprints in his hand and remembered exactly what it looked like, not just become a co-pilot of the Argo and a leading scientist with Monarch. It was bigger, and besides the normal ORCA display, which was used to regulate the echo signal of the Titans, there was something else, something with a small lever with voltages going up.

* * *

Titanosaurus struck out and hit Anguirus in the face, claws slashing a deep wound across the cheek and eye, blood came out. Anguirus roared up, the pain came unexpectedly, making himself vulnerable. Suddenly a painful stinging felt in his throat, squeezing the air out of him. Titano had snapped and squeezed Angila's throat with his mouth, the teeth braiding through the skin and digging another dangerous wound. Slowly, the Titan of the water rose and grabbed Anguirus by the sides with his claws, locked them into his armour with spikes and pulled him up with brute force. Anguirus tried to roar but only a gurgling yelp came out, the teeth pressed his throat further together and he could hardly breathe. How wildly he breathed and slapped his tail around and tried to free himself, the higher Titano lifted him up and got less and less air.

He tried to call for help, but Titanosaurus didn't seem to notice, he was like in a trance. Like a cold blooded monster.

* * *

Jonah laughed a little, not one full of joy, yet with a slight sarcasm. He watched everything on the screen in front of him, a little set up like his own home cinema, as it was projected on the wall. But it wasn't a movie, everything was real, the monsters were real, the roar and destruction was real and that made Jonah happy to carry out his plan, wich put the old man in a good mood. But one of his henchmen tapped him on the shoulder, he nodded at him and he whispered something in Jonah's ear.

A disappointed sigh came from Jonah as he crossed his arms and looked over to the screen and the Titans. Rick had been watching closely what Jonah was doing, he and the other hostages seemed to be safe as long as Jonah's mood was, or at least appeared to be, in good order. But now the old eco-terrorist looked frustrated and disappointed, which made Rick more than a little nervous. Barnes had no idea what to do, he had no chance against the 10 other guards with fully automatic assault rifles.

"Well, my dear guests, it looks like we'll have to leave, but we won't be able to leave any witnesses." Jonah nodded to his individual henchmen who had been guarding the hostages. They walked backwards with their weapons aimed at the soldiers and monarch guards of the facility, as they were most likely to pose a danger to them. Jonah crossed his arms and counted the people for himself, Stanston and Barnes, 6 scientists and 4 monarch guards and a technician. "Sir?" The man at the ORCA device asked Jonah. "Unplug the device and transfer to broadcast." Without asking, the henchman nodded and very roughly unplugged the device from each wire.

Rick looked over at the screen, Titanosaurus had still grabbed Anguirus by the neck and had now pressed him against a building, he couldn't take it for long.

"Well," Jonah said, probably he wanted to give the order to fire. But something interrupted him, something metallic hit the ground to his left, he could only hear one of his henchmen shouting "Grenade!" It was just a stun grenade, but it bought the others enough time.

Rick was thrown to the ground behind the control desk. He saw a bright light for a few seconds but he saw the outlines of people running. The loud beeping suppressed most of the noice but he heard also something else, shots. His vision slowly improved, his right lens was broken. But he saw one of Jonah's henchmen go down beside him and Barnes grabbed his gun.

Then everything became clearer, the shots got louder and his vision returned to normal and he felt someone pull him by the shoulder and say "Rick can you hear me?! Ilene yelled in his ear, he just nodded and saw Mark run to the back and free the hostages they ran through the emergency door as quick as possible, Mark ran over to the others. Ilene ducked behind the control panel with him an Barnes. Ford got five of the men but Jonah and the rest had run upstairs.

A henchman was at the door and gave cover but Ford ran to cover behind him to Rick and the others to the control panel. After only two seconds he nodded at Barnes and the two shots from cover at the man. He was knocked to the ground as his legs were blown off.

But Ford was not finished yet. "Jonah I going up, we can't let him get away!" "Hey, Ford, wait!" Ford ran to the top of the stairs while Jonah and his henchmen took the elevator on the north side of the building.

"Is this guy insane?!" Rick yelled with another slight muffled feeling in his ear.

"Maybe, but first we got to get everybody out, go, go!" Barnes said. The group ran down the stairs where the other hostages had run down. Rick tried to explain somehow in the rush what was going on.

"Jonah ambushed us and wanted us to put some new ORCA device on us to be able to use in the sea of our -" "

The ORCA?!" Mark said, more than a little shocked. "But the ORCA was destroyed!"

"Apparently Jonah still had Emma's blueprints, but something's different..." "Different what?"

"There were other buttons, I don't know what for, it looked like voltages."

Mark stopped, turned around and ran back up. "Mark!" Ilenen screamed and went after him, "Ford needs my help." That was his last answer before he disappeared again through the door upstairs. Barnes had to grab Ilene and pull her back, she was going after Mark.

* * *

With a mighty thunder that shook the earth, Titanosaurus dropped Anguirus to the ground. Injured and with his breath almost gone, he lays on the ground, just growling angrily, waiting for the final blow. But nothing happened, he only saw the red oranges, clawed feet of his opponent, who just stood there doing nothing but staring paralyzed into the air.

Anguirus sensed that something was not right at all, it was more than atypical. Titanosaurus had just one thing on his mind, the source of the calls that caused him to destroy. He looked over to the hills where a large building stood. He raised a mighty roar, louder than before. The few glass panes still in the buildings shattered for good as the blast wave reached them.

He stomped up the hill and there was no stop for him. Angurius looked up at him. He wheezed angrily and with great difficulty he got back on his feet. He didn't give up so easily.

Titanosaurus was walking up the hill on a big main road, he was so fixated on destroying the source, a mistake for him. He felt something throw him to the ground and a sharp pain went through his neck. Anguirus had thrown himself on him from behind and held him down again, face down and teeth in his neck. He shook and tugged at Titano's neck to tear flesh, to cause more pain, to pay him back for the pain Titano brought him. The rage was boiling inside of him so much, his strength increased, he hit Titanosaurus into a building. He himself felt nothing when he smashed his snout with it. He let go, but he gave Titanosaurus no chance to fight back. He stood on his hind legs and hit Titanosaurus' head, again and again and again with his paws.

* * *

Jonah had his arms crossed behind his back and walked relaxed and calm as a man his age would normally take a walk, only that only a few hundred yards away two gigantic monsters were fighting each other. His men obviously weren't as calm as he was, especially after one man had managed to take down 5 of them by himself, and they were carrying a machine that could make these giant monsters very angry as you could see. Jonah walked right next to the man carrying the ORCA, it was a little heavier than the previous machine, and Jonah wanted to be right next to the machine and monitor it. The others were already wading to the helicopter and getting everything ready for take off. Jonah was in no hurry, he assumed that the people downstairs would want to get all the people who survived out first.

"S-sir?" "Yes?" Jonah turned to the young man carrying the ORCA. He was the youngest of them all and was taken because he was good with tech stuff. "W-why are you s-s-so quiet?" He stuttered. Jonah giggled, "A man in my old one is in no hurry. Why don't you tell me, why are you getting involved?" It seemed they picked the boy up at a coffee shop somewhere, he seemed totally inexperienced. Jonah rarely chose the people he took on his missions himself, because he wanted to go unnoticed. "Someone offered me the job and said they would pay well. I have to go to college, maybe I can pay my debts with this." Jonah raised his eyebrow, he always thought that the people who helped him were fighting for the same thing as him. "Yeah, I want my kids to have a good life someday, so I do just about any job I can get." The man with the gun said he was almost 30. "Aww that sounds great, how old are they?" "8 and 6 a boy and a girl, my wife looks after them when I'm away a lot." Jonah was more than just annoyed and depressed listening to these two, he was fighting for the planet and to restore a natural order, and the people who help him don't even care about that, but about things that were insignificant to him. When they arrived at the helicopter, the others were pretty upset and stressed. "It took long enough-" one man growled on the ramp, but just then a shot came from the side that hit him in the chest and knocked him to the ground, blood was all over the floor. Jonah looked over to the other end of the airfield. Ford stood there with his gun on and now he had Jonah in his sights.

"Jonah Alan?!" he yelled. Confused, not really sure what to do, just saying yes. "Raise your hands up and behind your back, you're under arrest." "And you think I'm gonna do this, who are you anyway?" "Sergeant Ford Brody." Jonah's eyes widened a little and he glanced over at the monsters. "The Titan Hunter?" Ford growled, that nickname was only given to him by a few people at Monarch's, hoping they didn't know more about him. "I saw you back in China, where you also shot at me, you don't forget such a talented man." Ford didn't say anything, he didn't care what he said, he wanted to shoot Jonah but he knew Monarch needed information from him. Jonah obviously wanted to be in on the bargain. "If you worked for me, I assume you have family, right? I could offer you protection from these Titans. If you refuse, well, you can see what's waiting for you."

Ford realised what a shitty lie he'd gotten himself into, he'd overestimated his capabilities. There were 6 men aiming at him and he was all alone, they could make Swiss cheese out of him, right where he was standing. The monsters approached, the constant shaking and explosions made the situation worse. "So what will ou choose?"

"Damn it." That's what Ford thought. What Jonah offered him was nothing he couldn't do himself, he could protect Ellen and Sam himself, he wouldn't need help with that. But if he wants to see them again, he's gonna have to go for it. "Okay." Jonah smiled, "How great it is, someone new with a-" "Ford, you must destroy the ORCA!" Mark slammed the door and screamed out of his lungs, without thinking he wanted to run over to Ford, but stopped when he saw six men with machine guns pointing at him.

But Ford did not hesitate for a second and used the distraction to throw another stun grenade, he hit a few meters in front of the helicopter. It didn't knock anyone out, but at least it gave Ford time to run away and limit the accuracy of the henchmen a little. Mark immediately jumped to the side for cover behind a ventilation system, Ford ran as fast as he could across the landing pad while the 6 men could see clearly again and opened fire on him, jumped over the ventilation system and took cover behind it.

"Thanks for helping Mark, even though the situation may have gotten a little worse." The bullets pierced the shell of the vent, but got stuck just before Mark and Ford. The monsters were closer, about 150 meters before they reached the facility, Anguirus fought furiously against Titanosaurus, but still the fight shifted too close.

Jonah saw this and gave the signal to leave, it was getting dicey here. The pilot started the plane, the rotor blades were stirring up a lot of dust. Mark punched Ford to the side to make sure he got Ford's attention. "Ow, what the hell?!" Ford yelled. "Ford, we can't let him get away!" "Oh, genius you don't say, but we haven't got a chance." "No, you don't understand!"

Mark explained to Ford, "The device that Jonah has, it can control the Titans. We must destroy it. If we don't, she could repeat dozens of things that happened today." Ford was getting a little antsy. He took his last stun grenade out of his pocket.

He peered over the edge briefly to see what the ORCA might be, he had to duck very quickly as more shots came towards them, just missing him. "Okay, what is the ORCA?" "It's that big suitcase thing the man next to Jonah is carrying." Ford nodded and pulled the pin out of the grenade. He narrowed his eyes and threw them over the cover, Mark covered his ears.

For a moment he heard, "Take cover!" Then again the loud explosion. Ford heard a short beep, but it wouldn't be long before he heard normal again. The engine of the helicopter was started, he had even less time. He stoodd up and jumped over the cover. He saw the ORCA, he took aim at it, only a few seconds would remain until the door closed. He took a deep breath, concentrated, and fired. The bullet went in a straight line just past Jonah, who could still feel the draft on his hip, and hit the ORCA.

The "suitcase" started sparking and the young man threw it against the wall in panic, to make another final blow against the device. Jonah just stood there in horror as he looked over to Ford, who had stood up when they took off, holding the gun over his shoulder, a relieving sigh came from him. The door closed in front of Jonah's and Ford had a slight grin on his face. Mark stood up and cleaned some dust off his jacket that had accumulated and slowly walked over to Ford. "Everything okay?" "Yeah, I've been better." But both of them flinched briefly when the very short peace was interrupted.

Titanosaurus roared loudly as he had shaken Anguirus off his shoulder and grabbed his own head, shaking it wildly around, a strong wind was blowing from it. It seemed as if something was hurting his head. He was very close to them, he was standing right in front of the building, it only took one good hit and the whole complex could collapse.

Ford insistently aimed his gun at Titanosaurus, but shooting at him was a very bad idea. Mark looked up as he tried to keep his balance as the ground beneath their feet was literally falling away.

But there was rescue, from Anguirus. He jumped from behind on Titanos back and bit the back of his head, shifted his weight forward and threw him to the ground, but Angilas knew better than to just give him that hit. As Titanosaurus lay on the ground, he stood on his hind legs, stretched out his paws and stomped on his head, several times. Titanos head was pushed deeper into the ground, the pain in his head was suddenly gone, but now it was the pain Anguirus caused him that plagued him. A cry for help came from him, like begging for forgiveness, in fact the constant pounding of the paws stopped for a moment. But then, when he looked up, Anguirus whipped his tail in his face and beat him to the side, creating a certain distance between the two. Titanosaurus sight was blurred, as he looked around him for a while, he could see Anguiruses outline, and he knew he was very angry.

Titano made a soft sound, again similar to the cry for help. Anguirus returned an aggressive roar. Titanosaurus recognized this as a sign that he was allowed to leave. Carefully he pulled himself up out of the rubble, his posture strongly bent, marked by exhaustion and pain.

He saw more clearly, over to Anguirus who growled and snorted angrily at him. For a brief moment the two Titans stared at each other, but then the beaten one retreated, following the path of destruction he had set in motion.

As the Titan of the Water slowly retreated back into the ocean, Anguirus let out a triumphant roar, it lasted through the whole city, down to the bay, the earth trembled beneath him.

Having portrayed his victory, he too began to make his way back to his home, but before that he noticed something. He looked over to the buildings Mark and Ford were standing on, he turned to them, stood on his hind legs and balanced his weight with his tail. Interested in the creatures that were much smaller in comparison to him, with whom he had an instictive positivity.

Both became extremely nervous, they had no idea what to expect as this four-legged Titan strolled slowly and carefully over to them, looking as if he could trip any second.

Anguirus didn't have any bad intentions, as Mark found out, because he carefully stuck his snout out towards them and let a huge wave of warm air down on them. He sniffed around, he seemed to be interested in who they were. Ford was still pointing the gun at him, right in his eye.

Mark tried to tell Ford carefully not to shoot, but Ford himself let the gun down after a short time. He stared into the Titan's eyes. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened to him, but he felt a great deal of respect, though it seemed to be mutual. He nodded over to Anguirus and had a slight grin on his face.

"Good fight big guy."

Anguirus let out a gentle growl as he pulled his head back and stared up at the sky above Mark and Ford. He then returned to his four-legged position and made his way to the sea to recover.

Mark heard very loud turbine noises coming from behind him, he turned to look up, he saw a large triangular shape, the Argo. They were saved, for now. He sighed with relief and tried to relax somehow, so he sat down on the concrete he was standing on, took a deep breath, and stared at the Destroyed City that lay before them. Ford joined him, sat down silently, and still looked after Anguirus as he went into the water.

Soon the others would drive back here, a helicopter from the Argo would pick them up and everyone could take a breath.

"You know, Serizawa was wrong about one thing, maybe." Said Ford. Mark looked over at him, Ford stared at the Golden Gate Bridge, it was still intact.

"He had often said they weren't monsters but animals reclaiming a world that belonged to them," Mark raised his eyebrow slightly, "but I don't think they're just animals. Once you've looked a Titan in the eye, you realize there's more to it." Ford laughed a little, he was a little embarrassed to talk like that.

"Maybe you're right." Said Mark, thinking back to the moment when he had stared Godzilla in the eyes when Serizawa had sacrificed himself for him. There was more behind it than just animals.

"Mark, I hope you find your daughter again, even if I can't help anymore." "Huh? Why?" "Today was my last day as a mission consultant, I didn't want to say any because I hate to make these goodbyes in front of a lot of people. But I also have to check on my family, they're all I have."

Mark nodded at him and turned his gaze to the floor. "You know, Ford, we're not so different." Said Mark.

"How do you think that?" Asked Ford.

"Well, we both survived after 2014, everyone had worked things out on parallel sides, we both really just wanted to protect our families."

Ford thought, in fact they were similar, only they had slipped down different paths. The Titans had both marked their lives and their families. "I think you're right." He said, and for a few minutes the two of them were completely silent and just looked at the burning city in front of them as the sun slowly turned to set.

Then Mark heard one of them open the door of the emergency exit. Ilenen stormed out, with Barnes after her. "Mark!" She called out and ran towards him. Slowly he got up, his back hurt a little when he was on his feet again. She almost threw him over when she hugged him, as tight as never before. Barnes gasped a little, the two of them were running up from the airfield.

"Ilene, what are you doing here?" Asked Mark, confused yet happy to see her as she smiled at him. "You think I'd just leave without you?" She laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Mark sighed and looked to the end of the city where the last tip of Anguirus had just disappeared into the water.

Ford had also got up, cleaned some dust off his jacket, stretched his neck a little which made a slight crack. He went over to Mark and Ilene and tapped him on the shoulder, Mark turned to him with a happy face, better than down at the bar. "I'll be saying goodbye now. It's been a honor." He reached out to Mark, "Me too." The two shook hands. He turned to Chen, "Take good care of this man." "I intend to." Laughed Ilene, she also shook his hand. Serenely, Ford walked over to Barnes, gave him his gun and said, "I'll send Foster the message. I gotta go find my wife and kid." Barnes nodded and gave him a farewell salute. "Well, you heard it already, but yeah man, it was an honor."

Ford nodded with a slight laugh and waved at them for a moment, went through the door at the emergency exit and disappeared.

* * *

**On the Argo 18.30**

Mark and Ilene left the medic station. Ilene held Mark's hand the whole time, with her arm under his, she had been extremely worried about him. Mark didn't say anything, he didn't really care if they made it public, Rick had already found out anyway and probably most of the others did too.

No one gave them any really strange looks or looked after them, it was unusual for couples to walk around on the Argo, but given the circumstances most didn't seem to care. It was late, the sky was covered in an Orange tint that went threw the whole ship.

Together they went to the bridge where the rest of the team was already waiting on the large control panel for a short intermeeting. Rick looked over his shoulder at them, and gave a slight giggle.

"And what was the diagnosis?" Asked Barnes sarcastically.

"Not a scratch, just a slight bump on the back of the head." Mark replied. The two didn't let go, obviously they didn't care, so Foster started as normal.

"Well, I read the incident reports on Barnes, Stanston and Brody. Jonah had used the coastal buoys that are managed by Outpost 14B to transmit a signal or call, similar to the ORCA, to lure the two Titans, code-named Anguirus and Titanosaurus, into battle."

She nodded over to Rick, who was typing something on the control panel. "Jonah had said he got the blueprints from Dr. Emma Russell, who probably had some sent to him, for building parts. He had what looked like a replica, with modifications of his own."

"What were the modifications?" Sam was confused, the normal ORCA should normally be enough to piss these monsters off. "I don't know, I could only make out what looked like voltages, what they were good for, I don't know."

"The important thing is that the device is destroyed, right?" Foster turned to Mark. "Yeah, Ford hit it dead on, it blew up." Foster realized that Mark had more to say. "What is it Dr. Russell?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure Jonah can't build just one. It could take time, for the regular ORCA the parts were not easy to get, who knows how long it took him to make the modifications. Anyway, we can't rule out that he won't do it again. We should prepare for that."

Ilene let go of Mark when this tried to explain it better on the control panel. "Where is Ford, anyway?" Asked Sam. "Sergeant Brody signed off on the mission to help his family." Foste looked around. "That was it." "Well, I'll be moving on to..." "Dr. Russell, may I speak with you for a moment?" Asked Foster. Confused and a bit shocked Mark looked at her, because when Foster wants to talk to someone it was almost always something serious. "um...sure." "All right, come with me. We need to talk in private." He went after her and looked briefly over to Ilene who smiled at him, which relaxed him a bit.

"Tell Ilene, when did this become about her and Mark, are you...?" Sam asked, slightly embarrassed. "Yes, we're together. Why do you ask?" She said without shame.

"I'm just a little surprised." "Really, I mean, you could see that quite clearly." Laughed Rick. "Oh, is that so Rick?" She said sarcastically. Rick had this confident smile on his face. "You seem to be in a good mood, Rick." Noticed Sam. "Yeah, I'd say that's because Jonah was too slow." Rick laughed, Sam had to give himself a giggle, Ilene just shook her head. But she noticed Barnes looking at the passageway where Foster and Mark had left.

"What is it?" "Poor guy." Ilene wasn't sure what that meant. "You mean Mark?" "Yeah, didn't you hear?" "No what?"

* * *

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Asked Mark Foster when they were in their little 'office' which she rarely used. In the middle was a table with chairs on either side, and a bed at the back of the room, in case of longer flights.

"Mark, please sit down." He sat down on the chair in front of him, Foster stood opposite him at the table with folded arms.

"How can I put this?" She whispered. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no. It's something else, it's about your daughter." Foster wouldn't let him see it, but she was nervous.

"What about her? Did they find her?" In him hope flashed slightly, because she was all he was trying to find again.

"No. Mark, I'm sorry, we can't continue the search."

A short rest followed, perhaps for less than a minute, but it felt much longer.

"What, why?!" Mark got up, obviously angry. "The real mission was, if Godzilla deviated from his normal route, we had time to search the area 3 days after him. Mark, the search Madison was a favor from me, I did not get official permission to search for your daughter."

Mark looked down at the floor, away from her. He squeezed his eyes together and cried, tears flowing down his cheeks, his daughter, because he just couldn't understand losing the last of his family. He looked up at her. "So you want to declar her dead?"

Foster sighed, both knew what the answer was. He just nodded and left the room, angry, confused and with tears in his eyes. Out in the hallway he slumped his hand against the wall. In anger and desperation, he punch it and roared.

"Why?!"

He pressed his head against the wall and closed his eyes, trying to process it somehow.

No one was in the hallway, it had become very quiet.

"Mark?" He heard it from the right side. He looked up, over at Ilene. The two looked at each other, she recognized only too well how much pain he was in right now.

"What do you want me to do about Ilene?" She stood there and said nothing, she didn't know the answer. "My whole family is gone now, Andrew, Emma, Madison, all dead. I am alone."

Again he hit the wall, this time with his foot. He hurt himself, but he didn't care, he didn't care about anything at this point. Ilene went over to him and pulled him away from the wall and hugged him. She felt the tears coming from him, he was shaking all the time, in pain, physically and psychologically.

"Mark, you are not alone." He wiped the tears from his face and looked at her.

"Sometimes in life we have to start over, despite everything that's happened to us."

She gave him a kiss to show she was there for him. She leaned her heads against each other and closed her eyes, and Ilene noticed how he slowly but surely calmed down again.


	8. Protector

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison is weakend, the things she has to go through make her question on how long she will be able to survive this. But in times when other needs protection, she will not back down and maybe it will help her see to what she will become.

**Chapter 8: Protector**

Madison needed a moment alone. These flashbacks, visions, as these Iwi had called it, really messed her up. Mentally and physically, she was feeling close to the end. Sometimes she tweaked her arm just to see that she wasn't dreaming which didn't necessarily make it better for her. Aaron even had to help her a few feet out of the ship to even get her out.

Carefully, he helped her lean against a stone. It felt very hard, but with a certain warmth to it, Maddie nodded her head to the side to see the village from the hill they were standing on. The people here seemed to be going about their daily business while Godzilla lay peacefully on the edge of the river, looking at the village as Maddie did.

She wasn't sure why, maybe he was looking at the village and the people who lived there just like she did. To him, they were probably like ants to a human, well not quite. A human wouldn't really pay as much attention to an ant as Godzilla did to those people.

"How are you. You look pretty beat up." Slowly she looked over at Aaron again and just nodded, not really feeling up to talking much.

"Believe me, I had something like that once, it was a kind of a test to see if new people would do something bad."

"Why?" Asked her softly. Aaron noticed she was not quite back on her feet yet, breathing heavily as she said it, and all in one word.

Instead of asking long questions, he said, "Well a few years ago, the mission I came here with, there were others with me, of course. Some good friends unfortunately, well as you can see, not all of them made it. One of my friends, his name was Ricco, had also had visions when we were on this island. At that time, the Imiki was not a seer, but you could tell he was in for a bad time."

With a guilty look he turned away from Maddie to the village and to the wall.

"The bastard had some weird dreams about Kong and wanted to test whether the Iwi deserved his protection. He had blown up the wall and let some of those giant spiders into the village. They got some Iwi and the rest of my friends. Kong got there just in time, and Ricco, he got what he deserved."

"Is that why you stayed?" Madison said she was starting to feel a little better, she could talk normally again. "Yeah, I got a lot of people killed, so I wanted to help the Ivi rebuild. It held up, well, until recently, but we're fixing it now." "And you also had to see these visions?" Aaron nodded at her, reaching out his hand as he felt she was getting better. With a slight upswing, she stood up while Aaron continued to talk.

"After Imiki became the seer, I too suffered pain. It was so they could see if I was a good and bad person."

"And what are you?"

"They said I was a person with actions I regret, but a good soul."

"Sounds good, although I don't quite believe in the visions I'm getting."

"Even though you've experienced it yourself?" He raised his eyebrow slightly, he was a bit skeptical about Madison, she was still a bit mysterious to him. He wasn't sure if she was that light the Iwi were talking about. "I try to explain everything with logic if possible." Aaron just smiled at it a little, he knew she might try to explain it all to herself, but probably couldn't.

"I think you shouldn't overthink some things, let's go down to the village, I'll explain the ritual a little bit, from what I know."

Slowly they went down to the village, with some caution as Aaron wasn't sure if Maddie was ready again. But she seemed to be fit again and recovering quickly, something he noticed about her in general.

On the way down, he asked her a few more questions. "So you're saying you want to explain everything with logic and you got picked up by a 100 meter monster?" "It's 112 meters and yes. I'm not quite sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with Kong." The two talked as they walked, and for Madison, everything started to feel a little more normal. People looked at her from time to time, but she didn't really notice. "What's your theory?" Aaron stroked his chin slightly and looked at her rather skeptically. "I've read a few reports, at least the ones where I have access. Kong seemed to have a similar mission to Godzilla. To keep nature in balance. He is the king of the island, but now he has disappeared, so someone else must take his place." "And where do you come in?" Madison was thinking, looking up at Godzilla. Talking to him, they didn't even realize they were getting close. He still seemed to be resting, watching over the village.

"I don't know. Kong was known for being a protector, maybe it's something like that." Aaron found Madison special. She seemed to know a lot for her age, especially about the monsters

"You said your dad works for Monarch?" "Yes, he's part of the senior science team."

"And you, live with him? Actually, that's not really the kind of thing a child can access on Monarch." "My mother was well connected, she got me into Monarch, well after 2014, big secrecy wasn't the biggest problem."

"What happened in 2014?" Aaron asked. Memories of Madison snapped back up, her head started to hurt.

"Some... monsters woke up. They attacked cities and tried to spread further, but Godzilla stopped them...me, ouch." She stopped and fasted her head, she had extreme headaches.

"Madison, are you all right?" "Yeah, I should... maybe... sit." She stumbled around had no orientation around her at all. Aaron grabbed her by the arm and helped her over to a stool.

Some of the people had gathered around her. Aaron spoke briefly to some of them, she didn't quite understand what he was saying. Just a quick "I'm gonna get you something, stay here." When he left some Iwi came with him, probably to get something.

The flash back had gotten worse, she remembered 2014 all the way back, she saw this black mass flying in the sky, followed by a huge mountain that pushed up and snapped at him. The roar of the monsters was perhaps the loudest she had ever heard.

They run away, away from the monsters. And yet she sees him. Fighting those dark monsters.

Someone had tapped her shoulder. She had been knocked out, blinking several times and looking around excitedly. A Iwi woman, about middle age, probably around 40 or so, looked at her.

Behind her were a few children, Madison was confused, as always these days, did the woman want something from her?

She bent down and lifted a bowl to her. In it was a kind of red juice that smelled sweet and seemed cloudy. "Drink it." Said the woman, with a slight smile on her face. A little hesitant, Maddie took the bowl. She didn't trust the Iwi's after the story in the ship.

But to at least she did trying to win the Iwi's trust. She drank in rather hasty sips, she had forgotten how thirsty she had actually become. It tasted bitter sweet, like medicine in a way.

The children behind lady watched in fascination. They were all perhaps of primary school age, between 5 and 9, and Madison looked quite different from them. The lighter skin and clothes, Aaron with his darker skin still had a certain resemblance to them. The last time people like Madison came to them, none of them were born.

The lady looked back and smiled at the children, but she had had experience with people who looked like Madison. She gently waved her arm to them to show that they could come closer. Madison put the bowl down and turned to them again with a smile. "Oh, hello." The group of children in front of her surprised her, there were about 6 of them and they looked at Maddie with big eyes. She blushed a little. She wasn't used to being stared at by so many people.

The woman spoke. "You play with children," she used hand gestures and symbols, she could barely speak. "I help, food for village. You watch."

"Um, I don't know, where's Aaron?"

"Aaron seek medicine. Please be careful." The woman still had that gentle smile on her face, probably some of the children were hers, maybe grandchildren. Madison nodded, a little uncertain, she was only 14 herself, but that was old enough for the Iwis to do important work. "All right, I'll look after them."

"Thanks," said the woman. Maddie got up and the kids were immediately in the mood to play, took her by the hands and dragged her out of the tent area. "Hey, slow down." Maddie said, she still felt a little wobbly on her legs, the exhaustion inside her was still great, the running, the chasing, and those visions were draining her strength.

Still, she tried to interact with the other children a little bit, maybe it made her disctracted a little.

The group led her to an open space near the wall where branches and sticks were lying around, a rock was also where they had painted it with something similar to chalk. Next to it was a small circular area where a relatively small campfire could be lit.

As the others ran past her, Madison looked at everything, it was all kind of simple, but the kids seemed to enjoy playing with it.

Something pulled at her arm, she looked down, a little girl around 6 or 7 looked at her with a playful smile. "Come along." The little girl spoke, took Madison by the hand and dragged her around.

Madison said nothing and just followed her around, interested.

She led her to the others, who were spread out over a large area where the grass had already partially entered with a kind of ball playing, it looked like a football.

"You wanna play?" Asked the girl when she looked up at Madison.

"Um... sure, what do you play?" The girl udnerstood her language quite well.

"We don't know the name, but Aaron always played it with us. He said you have to hit the ball between the rocks there and then the team gets a point."

"So just football, that should work out fine." Madison thought so.

She nodded to her and the girl moved back to the group where they had just formed a circle to divide the team. Madison just joined in and didn't really know what to do - it was all a bit embarrassing for her, she had never really had any experience with other children. Never had she interacted with others her own age, she was the only child with Monarch and had never been to school, had never done anything with other kids.

They were evenly matched to make it fair, Madison got on the same team as the girl and she showed her where to stand. Since she was the tallest, she went between the two stones, the "Goal" so to speak. Also on the other team, the tallest one was in the goal.

It started quickly, probably they didn't really count by points, they just played for fun.

For quite a while Madison had to defend little, because her team scored goals relatively easily. She had her left arm crossed and held on to her right where there was a scratch when she ran away from the skullcrawler.

She looked over at Godzilla who was still resting by the lake. He seemed so peaceful despite his reputation and look of a monster. Madison looked at his wounds, scars were on his face from Ghidorah and even older fights, one she actually saw when she was younger. The fight against Muto Prime, or Jinshin Mushi. A much bigger and stronger version of the Mutos that woke up shortly after Godzilla defeated them in 2014, causing chaos and destruction.

That's also where Emma and Mark split up, where Madison didn't understand everything that had happened. However, Emma ended up being a "heroine" to her when she managed to help Godzilla defeat Jinshin Mushi with an ORCA prototype. For Madison, Emma was a hero at the time, but she was too young to understand how many lives Emma had risked and the impact it might have later.

For it was there that Emma met Jonah, and where he had manipulated her, a mother lost in grief.

But it was also there where Madison saw Godzilla for the first time, a living being and not a cold-blooded monster who killed her brother like she or her father had imagined.

He was very badly wounded, his back was completely torn apart. His tips were split by an ultra high roar of Jinshin-Mushi. He could not fall back on his last shot weapon, the Atomic Breath. Had it not been for Emma, Godzilla might have been dead today.

Madison thought a lot about these things that could have happened differently in her life, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse.

Immersed in her thoughts, she did not really pay much attention to the game anymore. She felt a short pain in her head and a very short flickering before her eyes. One of the children of the opposing team hit her in the head with the ball, it was a bit harder than a normal football because it was not filled with air but dry grass.

The girl who helped her before ran back to her, picked up the ball and handed it to her while Madison was still rubbing her head from the pain. The scar she had was still fresh, but it wasn't torn.

"Here, you have to throw." Said the girl. Madison blinked briefly and looked down at her. She took the ball and looked over to the other goal, a boy about 11 years old was standing inside. Gently focused on the angle. She put the ball on the ground in front of her, the girl walked aside and looked at her with interest. Actually, you should just throw the ball with your hands but Madison had another idea.

With a firm swing from the hip, she kicks the ball and it flies several meters directly into the goal of the other team. The boy tries to catch it from the side but misses the ball by a very narrow margin and falls to the ground. The children are amazed by Madison, everyone looked over at her. It was a bit of luck, but she was the biggest one of them after all.

"That was great!" Said the girl, holding Madison's arm and laughing at her. It felt good for her, someone spent time with her and celebrated her, she hadn't had something like that for a long time.

The kids from another team scored a goal every now and then, for a while Madison played on the field with the others. She felt full of energy again, really enjoying the game, it had been so long since she had so much fun with something. She didn't even notice her foot aches or the scratches she had, she had almost forgotten that she was on an island full of dangerous creatures.

Until horror caught up with her and reminded her that she lived in a world full of monsters.

She had just scored another goal and smiled a little again, but the boy who was in the goal looked back and suddenly started running past Madison.

As she looked behind him he shouted a few words that Madison did not understand. Suddenly all the children started to run.

Madison slowly looked over again where the wall was. As the children ran past her, she saw what was chasing them away, and would soon chase her.

Strangely, two-legged monsters, about two meters high, crept through a hole in the wall that came through the skull crawler attack. They looked similar to the prehistoric velociraptors, but were far more dangerous, Death Jackals. They were extremely dangerous to prey their size, like humans.

Madison was overwhelmed with fear, but felt something inside her that fuelled anger, she clenched her fist and slowly walked backwards, staring the monsters straight in the eyes. The largest of the group had very bladder feathers and fur, it was probably a female, most of the others in the pack were more colorful.

She saw Madison and let out a gurgling growl and fleeced with her teeth.

Madison continued moving slowly backwards until she saw a nightmare.

The girl who had helped her before ran from the field towards her, but stumbled and looked as if she had hurt herself.

What the Death Jackals saw as an opportunity. The pack ran forward, towards the girl. Madison didn't know any better and also ran towards the girl, she had to protect her somehow.

The girl was crying, her arm was hurt, hopefully not broken. Madison was quick and lifted her off the ground and put her arms around the little girls shoulders. She wanted to run away with her, but then noticed that they were surrounded.

Apparently, the Alpha was holding the others back a little. Madison looked her straight in the eyes, no pupils, they were completely white, actually meant for hunting at night. She had many scars and wounds, and it appeared that many were not from other animals but from foreign bodies, possibly Iwi spears.

She knew that they could attack at any moment, she was watching over what was happening behind. There stood a male Death Jackal who was only held back by the Alpha.

The girl pressed herself firmly against Madison and held her hand, she cried and had her eyes closed. "Listen to me." Madison whispered to the girls.

The female Death Jackal moved closer to them, drawn by Madison's whispers.

"When I say run, run." The girl kept crying, but rubbed her head in Madison's stomach so she knew it was supposed to say "Yes."

The female was three feet away and made a gurgling sound coming from her throat. Saliva dripped from the mouth, baring the theeht and spreading claws to strike.

Madison stamped her right foot on the ground to shy them away a little bit, Madison growled inside, her anger manifesting itself as she clenched her fists tighter. The Alpha took a step back with a hiss, moving her neck back a little further up.

"Now!" Madison pushed the girl aside. As she ran, the Death Jackal leapt towards Madison and sank her jaw into Madisons left shoulder. The teeth cutted very easily through the skin and squeezed her shoulder, she felt her bones slowly give way.

She screamed in pain, in suffering, for help.

But still she had to fight, she would not give up.

Madison grabbed the head of the Death Jackal with her right hand and pressed her thumb into her opponent's eye. She felt the eyelids close immediately and a slimy substance came out.

The female screamed out from the pain in her eye, but Madison didn't let go and punched her in the nasal cavity with her fist, all the strength in the right arm letting go in that punch. In fact, she noticed bones breaking in the Monsters nose a moment's time.

The other members of the pack held back, normally the alpha should have been able to kill a human like Madison, but they saw her scream out in pain again.

The Death Jackal Alpha grabbed her nose with her hands and tried to shake out the pain. Madison didn't let up, her anger made her exuberant, the shock of the attack relieved her pain as her body pumped her full of adrenaline.

There was now a huge wound in her left shoulder, her shirt was soaked with blood, the muscles were torn, the bones were dented. But there was still enough strength in her legs, she assumed a solid posture and held her arm in front of the chest to protect herself from another attack.

The Death Jackal female shook her head and once again opened her mouth ranning towards Madison.

Madison concentrated and swung her leg up as hard as she could against the monster's skull. Out of balance, she hurled the female to the side with enormous force on the ground. She roared up again, her nose was now completely broken.

When Madison looked down on the Death Jackal as it shook itself disoriented and tried to get back up, a male stormed towards her from the side. She recognized the danger early enough in eyes corner, bent down to the ground in a flash and grabbed a stone.

As the male was about to snap, Madison gave him a chin peck from below with the stone in her hand, again she put all her strength into her right arm. And indeed, she managed to throw the male to the ground, she was even very happy, because the stone partially injured the throat of the Death Jackal.

Now the others of the pack retreated, they made a lot of noise.

"Rouk! Rouk! Rouck!" Houled through the air, like a kind of warning.

Madison yelled at her back and threw the stone at another male's head.

She paid less attention to what was happening behind her as the leading female regained orientation. The sight got better on her Healed Eye and she saw Madison's leg in front of her. Without much hesitation she snapped and bit into Madison's leg.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Madison screamed louder than before again. She tried to shake off the female but she didn't let up and with a short blow she threw Madison to the ground.

As she bounced, she bit her lips and the taste of blood flared up in her mouth. As she layed on her stomach, the Alpha picked herself back up.

Now with a very primitive desire to pay back, she looked down at Madison as she tried to get up. But with a strong push, she pressed her foot on Madison's back, the long clawed braids running through her clothes and shirt. Once again Madison roared up, trying to fight back with everything she had. But the female had easily put her down, as she pressed the clawed foot on Madison's head. Hard enough to keep her on the ground, but not too hard to crack the skull.

She bent down and sniffed at Madison's head and smelled the familiar smell of fear.

Madison had lost strength from the blood that was lost, she felt it stick to all her clothes. Behind her neck was the hot breath of Death Jackal. It was the end, she was sure of it. Her face was turned to the right and left, she just closed her eyes and hoped it was over.

The Alpha of the Death Jackal pack growled again and stretched her neck back to deliver a final blow.

When Madison thought it was over, she raised a sound where she first thought her thoughts were playing a trick on her, giving her false hope.

But she felt the ground beneath her wobbling, she felt footsteps, big footsteps. And then a thunderous roar that was filled with rage.

"RAAAAAAUUUUR!"

She felt the pressure on her back decrease and the big steps came closer. Slowly she turned her head to the side and looked up, with a smile on her face.

Godzilla was standing right in front of them, his feet about 10 meters or so away from her. His tail hovered high above the village, high enough not to damage anything.

His mighty roar made the other Death Jackals flee in panic as the Alpha Death Jackal looked up at him, in fear.

His expression was quite pissed off as it seemed.

The Alpha stept away from Madison and walked back a little, still looking at Godzilla.

He growled loudly, visibly angry. Immediately, the Death Jackal ran, but he didn't let her go, he saw Madison wounded.

The Death Jackal tried to run away, Madison watched her run a few feet away. But then with a tremendous thunder that Madison felt through her whole body and into her bones, Godzilla stomped on the monster when it was far enough away from her. Earth and small stones flew through the air, Madison held her arm in front of the face to protect herself. When Godzilla lifted his foot off the ground, a huge imprint was left, she heard his roar again, she felt how aggressive he was now. Like the thunder of a storm.

Madison gave an exhausted sigh, taking a deep breath through her lungs, feeling the pain on her wounds increase. Her clothes were stained with blood, her face bleached from the blood loss. The vision before her eyes became blurred again, but by now she had gotten used to it. More and more she lost strength, she tried to stay awake, not sure if she would wake up again.

She saw a big shadow over her, she recognized Godzilla's face as he looked down on her. With her last strength she tried to grab him, but then her vision became darker and blurred until it was completely dark.

* * *

_She felt soft and secure. A pleasant warmth was around her, she had a blanket around her._

_She kept her eyes closed, she didn't want to wake up, she just wanted to forget everything around her, not the horror and pain that haunted her._

_But slowly she felt a cool wind coming over her, something snapped up her legs, it was like a snake. Although her eyes were closed, she recognized a yellow light surrounding her, she heard thunder and lightning, a storm was coming._

_"No, no." She pulled the blanket closer to her._

_The thunder became louder, the cold air came closer and closer. The yellow light disappeared, a dark shadow covered her._

_She heard a roar, one that she only wanted to forget, but probably never could. The one that is many._

_She felt it getting colder and colder, almost the warmth had completely disappeared. Something was trying to pull her away._

_"NO!" She screamed into the void with all her might._

_And actually, it stopped. The cold went down, the storm moved away, the thunder and lightning could no longer be heard. The shadow left her, and a warm and much more pleasant light fell on her._

_She heard other sounds, friendlier, more natural sounds. It was the rustling of trees in the wind, the chirping of birds and a gentle breeze blowing over her. Something soft landed on her face, she carefully opened her eyes to see what it was._

_A pink blossom had landed on her cheek, she picked it up carefully with her hand, it was quite small in fact. And when she took a closer look at the blossom and opened her eyes, she recognized where she was._

_She sat up and took a closer look at everything. She had been lying on a large and soft mattress, with a white and blue blanket that was as soft as velvet and warmed her. Around her flew more of the pink flowers in the wind, they came from the Japanese cherry trees that grew around her, there was a whole forest just out of them._

_Around them was a path paved with stones, nicely arranged, leading further back, which was covered by trees._

_Madison got up, something told her to follow the path. She noticed that she was wearing her favorite shirt, the blue and white with red stripes. However, she also noticed that she only had shorts, and no shoes, which seemed very normal from standing up._

_More she felt the urge to follow the stone path, and she did. Despite the fact that she had no shoes, it didn't feel uncomfortable, it seemed to be quite natural._

_Every now and then the wind blew more blossoms from the trees, which briefly got caught in her hair. Next to the path all kinds of beautiful plants were growing. Colourful flowers, ferns, herbs. Everything looked so beautiful. She didn't even notice how long she was walking, she had no sense of time anymore, as if everything had stopped._

_But as she followed it and it wound its way back and forth through the forest, she saw in the distance, maybe about 100 or 150 meters in front of her, a Japanese Gate, a Torii, she had the feeling as if she had seen it somewhere before._

_She went on anyway, it was sure she had to go there. Usually they were standing near or in front of a temple._

_After a while she arrived at the gate, it was quite big, 10 or 12 meters high maybe. As she walked through, she saw a huge round open space where a small Japanese hut stood to her right._

_All around was a fence that drew a borderline, behind it was a cliff that led down into the depths, and behind it Madison could see the sea and a dense forest. She wanted to walk towards the fence, but was distracted by a small pond. The pond was surrounded by a Zen garden, it was even big enough that a stone bridge over it. Carefully she went to the water and looked inside, it was crystal clear._

_She watched as Koi swam in it, hiding under water lilies as Madison approached and bent over the edge of the pond._

_With caution, she stretched out her hand into the water, making gentle movements that created light waves. One of the koi, he was almost all black with blue lines, swam slowly towards her. With great shyness he touched Madison's hand with his mouth, she must have giggled a little as it tickled._

_She stroked him across her back, felt the scales glide against her hand, up to her fin. Slowly she took her hand out of the water again, noticing how the wind seemed much colder because of the water._

_She went to the fence that was in front of the cliff and leaned against it. And looked down on the dense forest that was down in the valley, in between the Japanese cherry trees with their pink leaves sticking out. The sea that lay behind it was sapphire blue to the horizon, she could easily hear the waves in the distance._

_Madison took a deep breath and tried to relax._

_For a while she just stood there and looked at the beautiful landscape in front of her._

_"Beautiful, isn't it?" Said someone beside her. Scared, she looked beside her, it was a male voice with a Japanese accent, a familiar voice. Next to her stood an older man, with glasses, white shirt and a brown jacket._

_"Serizawa?" Serizawa smiled at her. "Aren't you going to greet your old Uncle Ishiro?" He asked. Madison went to him and hugged him, he himself laughed a little and was very surprised._

_"I'm sorry, Ishiro." "Sorry for what?" He asked, he could tell she was crying. "That I couldn't do anything in time."_

_He tapped her on the head to calm her down. She let go after a while and wiped the tears from her face. It felt real, too real._

_Serizawa cleaned his glasses briefly to see better. "How are you, Madison?"_

_"G-good"? She just asked herself that, she didn't know how she was doing._

_"That's good to hear. Would you like to stay for tea?"_

_Again, this conversation felt too real._

_"Um, yes, I would." She answered._

_He led her to the small hut she had seen before._

_The two of them went inside. It was really not big, a small kitchen and a table with two chairs were next to the entrance, a staircase led up to the other floors. It had maybe three or so, probably it was the space more built upwards._

_"Please sit down." He pointed to the table next to them as he walked to the stove where a teapot had been ready to cook._

_Madison didn't hesitate long and sat down, the table was right next to a window where she could look out._

_On the table was a vase with a small branch full of cherry blossoms and a butterfly on it. It looked familiar to her, but not something she could say directly. Gently she reached out to touch it, but it flew straight onto her arm._

_He looked kind of cute, with his many bright colors, on the tips of his wings he had something like blue eyes._

_"Be careful, the tea is still hot." Serizawa came to the table with two cups of tea, the butterfly flew away from Madison's arm. "Thank you." Madison said._

_She picked up the cup and poured it over it carefully to cool it down a bit, took a very small sip that was still relatively hot but at least it didn't burn her._

_"You look very tired." Said Serizawa. "Yes, so am I." She immediately admitted it without thinking much. "How have you been lately?"_

_She sighed. He gave her a worried look._

_"It's all so much, I don't understand the world anymore, why is this happening, why me?"_

_Serizawa nodded at her._

_"There are often moments when we think we are in a chaos of confusion. But everything has an order, we just have to recognize it."_

_Madison looked out the window again as the sun's rays brightened._

_"Ishiro, why did Godzilla take me?"_

_He said nothing at first, and took a sip of his tea._

_"I have always thought that he alone is the key to coexistence. But it seems I was wrong."_

_Madison was confused, not exactly knowing what this meant. She noticed how she was getting lighter, like she was disappearing._

_"I think you need to leave." Said Serizawa to her._

_"Wait, I have to tell you something." Serizawa nods to her with a warm smile on her face._

_"I'm sorry, for everything, if I had reacted in time, I might have saved so many lives, including you."_

_She got up and hugged him again. She squeezed her eyes again and could not hold back her tears._

_"Don't be sorry Madison, you did what you thought was right."_

_"But, I... I at least wanted to say goodbye to you."_

_"Now you have it."_

_His voice held through her head and slowly she noticed how everything around her disappeared, but it didn't feel as bad as before, no she felt much better._

* * *

"She's awake!" Madison heard Aaron's voice when she regained consciousness. She tried to sit up, emitting a painful moan. The pain went from her arm all the way through her body, the wound was much stronger than she remembered, there was no adrenaline left to relieve the pain inside her.

Carefully and slowly she sat up and looked around her, she was in a tent, a slightly torn blanket had covered her. All around were various wooden bowls, glasses and other containers with strange powdery substances inside. Night had fallen, the light of candles was given to the tent and from outside there seemed to be torches, the chirping of crickets could be heard.

Aaron came into the tent with Ato, Ikimi and two other Iwis. "Hey, careful your wound hasn't healed yet." "You don't say? Ouch." Madison coughed briefly, she still felt a pressure on her chest from the foot of the Death Jackal stepping on her back.

"Okay, Ato and the others will help you prepare for the ritual, I have to help out." "What kind of ritual is it?"

"You'll see." Said Ato in a very soft voice to reassure Madison.

Aaron nodded and walked quickly out of the tent; he seemed to be in quite a hurry.

The Iwis around her began to mix the powders around her into a single, slightly larger bowl, a bowl of water came in. They stirred it with a wooden stick until it became viscous. "What is this?" Madison asked more interested. "Body paint, it's for you." Said Ato.

After a while the mixture took on a very bright blue color, almost a kind of glow. The other two Iwis were clearing away the other containers and bowls to make room for bursts, and when they left the tent Ikimi sat down with Madison.

"Don't worry, doesn't hurt." She said to her. She took the paint with her fingers and ran it up Madison's forearm. She flinched for a moment, a slight pain running through her. "Sorry."

"Don't be."

Ikimi went on, she made a very specific flame-like pattern on both of Madison's arms, it went from the middle to the wrists.

"You must close your eyes." Madison did this, albeit somewhat uncertainly.

She felt like Ikimi, with her finger from her right forehead down a line to the eye, where it was a kind of narrow circle and then again a rope down the cheek.

"There, it's done." Said lkimi. Madison opened her eyes again.

"Let the paint dry a little. I'll get someone to see you." Said Ato. He went out of the tent. Ikimi and Madison just waited in silence, looking at the painting on her arm, she thought it looked pretty good, actually.

Again she noticed how her shoulder hurt very much, a pulling pain that lasted for a few minutes. She closed her eyes and tried to distract herself from it.

She thought again about the dream she had, it was very strange. It had felt too real, maybe her brain was trying to process it. But she was trying to remember everything, all the colours and sounds, it was so real.

"Pain"? Asked Imiki. Madison looked at her as she pointed to her shoulder. "Yes. It still hurts a lot."

"Let me help you." Imiki took a small bottle out of her bag that she had with her. A strange clear liquid was inside. "it makes the pain go away."

Very carefully she took Madisons bandages off, she knew what she was doing. He now saw Maddie himself how bad the wound was. There was a huge cut all over her shoulder, the bite marks from the Death Jackal were still clearly visible. However, she was lucky in her misfortune, no flesh was torn out, it could probably heal completely.

Ikimi dripped a few drops of the liquid away. It burned at first when Madison felt it, but she bit her lips and mand her way through. Ikimi carefully put the bandage back together. In the end, Madison barely felt the pain that had previously emanated from the wound.

Ato had returned with the girl Madison had been protecting. Madison smiled in relief, not sure if she was safe.

"She wants to thank you." Said Ato. Madison nodded at her, the girl went to her and gave her a hug, Madison ignored the pain she was in, this was just too beautiful of a moment. The girl let go and ran behind Aaron again, probably a little shy because Madison had stood up for her.

A loud humming could be heard from outside, followed by a slight tremor on the ground.

"Is that Godzilla?" Asked Madison, she hadn't thought about what was happening to him, the last thing she remembered was his face as she fell Unconscious.

Nodding replied Ato: "The time has come. Ikimi will help you stand." Madison nodded, even though she tried to stand up on her own, the wound on her leg made this a little more difficult. Ikimi helped her rest on her shoulder and slowly they left the tent.

Madison almost gasped at the sight.

Godzilla lay directly in front of the tents, in a straight line was an open space leading to him. His head was at a height, turned towards her, their eyes crossed immediately. He gave another soft humming sound, Ikimi and Ato accompanied Madison to him.

The village had gathered between the tents and watched them, all holding candles or torches as lights.

The sky was clear, the moon was at its highest point and she saw again those northern lights over the island, the night sky was lit by the many stars.

They had arrived before Godzilla, he had turned his head down to her and looked at Madison. His orange eyes reflected her face again in the light of the torches.

"Can you stand?" Asked Ato. Madison noticed Imiki let go of her easily to see if she could get on it. "I think." She said she felt a little stronger than before.

Ato nodded and so Imiki let go of Madison. She limped a little at first but then she balanced herself.

"Take this amulet, touch him with it." Said Imiki.

One with a necklace she had attached it to herself, carefully she took it off and handed it to Madison. A strange symbol she had seen before was on it, the first time it was in China, in the Moths Temple. Without wondering, she raised her arm and touched Godzilla together with the symbol on his nose.

At first nothing felt, only she was happy to see him again. But then the amulet began to glow, it radiated a bright blue light. All of a sudden Godzilla's back also began to glow, not like when he charges to attack, it was much gentler.

The glimmer of the amulet went over to Madison's hand, and brought the painting to wrap in a fantastic light.

Slowly Maddie noticed how she became hotter, and was surrounded by a blue aura.

The light became brighter before her eyes, until she could see nothing more, and slowly she ran out of strength again, she fell asleep again.


	9. Restoring the old bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison is now confronteted with her own past as well as the rest of humanitys. Now she will restore something long lost since thousands of years, and ancient bonds between humanity and Titans.

**Chapter 9: Restoring the old bond**

Slowly she opened her eyes, a bright light shone towards her, everything felt so dizzy. From one moment to the next, she had come here from the village and Godzilla, and it felt so similar again when she met Serizawa.

Carefully she sat up, this time she wore the same clothes as she had in Boston, her leather jacket, jeans and the Boston Red Socks shirt, even the same shoes as back then. The floor beneath her was just flat, hard and cold, different from the last time. She looked around, nothing but a white void, no sounds, no objects, no other people. Not even wind was here, it was absolutely nothing.

"Am I dead?" Madison began to seriously ask herself that question. Was this the Afterlife?

Maybe she had succumbed to her injuries and that is why she passed out. Then she remembered the amulet that lkimi had given her, it began to light up when she held it against Godzilla.

She quickly turned around, maybe when finding it, would give her answers. She briefly searched the ground next to her for the amulet, but quickly noticed a small weight being put on her neck. She looked down at her chest, where the amulet was hanging on the chain around her neck. Maddie took it back in her hand and looked at the pattern carefully, she did not recognize what the symbol meant, it was a cross with a circle on the inside, from which small lines emanated, similar to sunrays. When Madison turned it around, she saw a moth that looked alot like Mothra, at least it had to be her, it was a weird feeling.

For a while she just examined it, maybe there was an answer to everything that had happened.

And indeed, she would get it, but not from the amulet, but from someone she knew very well.

"It looks very nice, doesn't it?"

For a moment, Madison's breath faltered, it ran down cold over her back, flinched and froze where she was. Thought it wasn't possible, it must have been her thoughts playing tricks on her again.

If it was another nightmare in which she had fallen, she had to see visions again, the memories she wanted to forget. Carefully she turned slowly around and saw a person, a woman with a white lab cape, blue eyes and dark blonde hair.

"M-Mom?" Madison said, she felt very insecure in this moment, even a little scared.

"Yes, Madison, it's me."

Emma said, she smiled to make her daughter to make her feel safe and reassured. Madison stood up slowly and carefully, her eyes always on Emma. She remembered a similar nightmare she'd had before, the thought of it gave her goose bumps.

Emma took a step toward her, but Madison immediately took one step back and assumed a more aggressive stance. She was confused, scared, didn't know where she was or what to do, relying only on her instincts and what she had learned, and that told her to defend herself.

"You don't have to be scared, Maddie, trust me."

"That's what I did last time, and guess what happened?"

Emma sighed. "I'm sorry, I want to make it up to you, I want to help you."

Madison looked down at the floor, a slight shadow fell over her face. Emma saw tears running down her daughter's face, hitting the white floor of the void and disappearing in an instant.

"Do you have any idea what I've been through?"

Madison asked. Emma remained silent, unable to answer the question. She looked away from her daughter.

"The guilt I felt, I believed it would kill me. Humans, Titan and the planet, all hurt and killed, because I was too stupid and naive to believe this stupid plan of yours! The nightmares I have every night, every night Ghidorah is chasing me again and again, every night I wake up and cry and I'm scared and there's nobody there. Every day I think of the people who died when Jonah killed them because I couldn't convince you not to work with him, the people who died because of Rodan, because I couldn't stop you. Mothra died because we woke up Ghidorah, for you she was just a test object for that stupid ORCA! You didn't care about the lives of Titans or humans, No, you also didn't care about me!"

Madison got down on her knees again and cried, she collapsed, overwhelmed by the feelings inside her, she was angry at Emma, again plagued by the guilt inside her. It brought her to the edge of her strength after what happened to her, she wanted to get rid of all the suffering, not live through these things again.

Emma walked up to her, reached down her hand to her daughter.

"And I want to prove to you that I care about you, despite my death, I still cared about you, and I want to help you through this."

It took Madison a moment to calm down, to get her emotions back in order, to get her sadness and anger under control. Madison looked up at her, Emma tried to make a familiar and friendly impression, but still Maddie didn't trust her one bit. She stood up herself, ignoring her mother's reaching hand.

She took a deep breath, tried to concentrate. She felt sick from the feelings bubbling inside her. This was not a normal dream like befor, it was the same as meeting Serizawa, everything was too real and didn't have that surreal, light feeling of a dream.

"If I want to trust you, then tell me where we are." Madison demanded; Emma nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately, I am not sure how, what, or where we are here myself. I just call it The Void, we can still communicate here, despite death being an obvious problem."

"Wait, does that mean I am...?!"

Madison became a little panicky at the thought of her dying, now the question came up in her, had she bled out to death from her injuries or had Godzilla done something to her?

"No you're not dead, your body's in a dream state, you're healthy. All this is in your mind, a kind of dream, so to speak."

Madison breathed a sigh of relief, at least that she was still alive. It was strange to describe it, thinking that she was dead.

"Looks very…. very empty."

"Yes, it's just as I thought, I've been in a similar environment for the past few months, I thought it might be more comfortable for us both to talk in a simpler setting."

Madison didn't quite like this place, she didn't know which way was up or down, and even the floor was weird, it felt trippy and didn't really have a direction for her.

"And why am I here?"

Asked Madison. Emma smiled.

"Few people have access to it, and only specially selected people get this ability."

"And why are you here?" She asked her Mother.

"Like I said, I'm here to help you explain this journey. My soul chosen because I'm your mother, a familiar face, so to speak."

Madison nodded, at least it helped her speak more openly. "And was that with Serizawa-" "Yes, his dream was real too, he shared his thoughts and memories with you. We were both chosen at the same time, but he decided it would be better if I explained all the things to you. He wanted to say goodbye one last time with a better memory."

"Who actually chose you?"

Emma smiled and looked up at the sky, and suddenly there was a loud but much softer and brighter roar. Madison recognized the sound immediately, and it made her feel safe.

"She did it."

Said Emma, pointing behind Madison. She turned around and a bright and colorful light that illuminated the area. out of the fog of nothing, a giant, beautiful butterfly flew, Mothra.

Mothra landed in front of the two of them with a huge gust of wind, Madison almost fell to the ground. It shook briefly as she landed, but nothing compared to the other Titans Madison had encountered so far. Mothra was much smaller and more graceful than most other Titans, but also much more agile and powerful than the outer appearance would suggest.

Slowly she took a lower stance, her wings folding together, almost 100 meters in length, leaned down to the two of them, she looked directly at Madison. Her head and body were much smaller and shorter, just about 20 meters. Her eyes were light blue like diamonds, she made a soft cooing sound.

Madison walked forward carefully, with her hand stretched out. She touched Mothras face, something told her to do it, maybe Mothra herself. It felt so soft and fluffy when she stroked it, her face was full of that strange fur. Madison embraced that and huged the Titan, felt so comfortable and safe, she hadn't felt such security for a long time, not even in the presence of Emma, her own mother.

After some time, she finally let go of the beautiful Titan and took a few steps back. Mothra made another gentle sound before she spread her wings again and rose into the air with a tremendous flap of her wings, disappearing into the mist of the white void.

"Where did she go?" Madison asked.

"Continued her path. But she hasn't left us, she still has a watching eye over you."

"It's funny, it all felt so-" "real." "Yeah."

Emma turned with a smile on her face, pointing towards the void.

"I'll explain everything to you in peace, come, we have to walk a little."

For quite a while they walked the white plane without end, time felt like vanished, non-existent practical. Emma walked calmly with her hands buried in her coat, she seemed to know exactly where to go. Quietly, she hummed something of herself, probably to create a slightly brighter mood. But Madison didn't even notice, she just walked next to her mother, who was supposed to be dead, or is, and tried to think about things that have happened or might happen.

Some questions had occurred to her that came up again and again after Emma's death, but she hadn't been able to ask anyone until now.

"Why did you listen to Jonah and not me?"

"What do you mean with 'why didn't you listen to me'?" Emma looked confused at her own daughter.

"When we- you woke Rodan up, I begged you not to. Mark was right that this wasn't the right way, and despite both of us, you went ahead and did it anyway."

"Jonah would have killed you if I hadn't done what he wanted, especially after you intervened and stood up against that." That was one thing Madison had always known that Jonah would probably get rid of her, for fun or because she was standing away from him. The two never got along, and Madison hated his guts.

"But if you had refused as well, everything would have been different. Without you, he could have done nothing. There's more to it than that, isn't there?"

Emma sighed; she couldn't just lie to her daughter after all of this.

"Yes. When Andrew died, I was, how shall I put it, out of my mind. I got absorbed in the work, but working at Monarch is different, it put more pressure on me, then our family split up and everywhere I went I saw the problems in the world, underneath which people I became very depressed, insane at the end."

That scared Madison a little, the thought of her own mother going crazy. Not like a psychopath who goes out there to directly murder people, still at least crazy enough to put people in danger.

"Jonah had taken advantage of that. The things he told me sounded too good to be true and were in line with what I believed in at the time. Plus, he pretended to be the only one who talked to me openly, or so I thought. He manipulated me and took advantage of that, persuaded me to join him. He seemed to know that I had no one to talk to."

"But I was there, couldn't you have talked to me, your own daughter?"

"No, I didn't want to get you involved, especially after Andrew died."

Madison raised her eyebrow in confusion, the story seemed different to her.

"But then you did drag me into it anyway. Like most of things, you don't want to do it at first but then yo go ahead anyway."

"Yes, you're right, at first I didn't want to, I knew you were too young to be exposed to these things, but the deeper I got into Jonah and his plan, I only had two options: Either I send you to Mark and leave you with him, not knowing for sure if everything's okay. Or I can prepare you and explain what's going to happen."

"And to make me think of you as the good guy."

"No, that's not what I had in mind."

Emma lowered her head, slightly sad, but Madison knew better by now.

"That's what you wanted, to make it a better place again and quote on quote 'Save the world'. Only you knew, that this method was not the right one, but you couldn't be honest enough with your own daughter to say that you had made a mistake, for you, I always had to think of you as the heroine of the story."

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them. Madison knew she was right. She had learned that Emma had hidden the truth from her all too often.

Emma sighed, aware of her own guilt.

"Yes. I never wanted you to see me as anything else. From back in 2014 when I built the first ORCA, I was known as a hero. It had not helped me make the right choices. I didn't want to hurt you and destroy your image of me, but I should have realized that I only did it more after I kept the truth from you about my own naiveté."

"I have one more question." Said Madison. "What is it about Maddie?"

Emma kept walking as she talked, never even looked directly at Madison.

"What is it like, really. I mean, what's it like to die? I never really believed in ghosts, heaven and hell but now, what can I believe?"

Madison crossed her arms and looked at her mother, who nodded in agreement again.

"I am also convinced that something like heaven and hell does not really exist. Despite the many months I've been there, I've learned very little about this world."

Madison wasn't sure if Emma was lying, but she didn't really expect to get an answer to that question either way. It's a mystery as long as live has existed.

"We don't really know what the soul is like, or how we have consciousness. There is energy in us, which in turn could be called the soul. This energy does not just go away when we die, it is an unsolved mystery what happens to it. And probably Mothra can control this energy since her Species has a memory that is transmitted from generation to generation, so that all memories are passed on to the successors. A reincarnation so to speak. I suspect she can keep the soul of the person she chooses conscious in a dream-like state. You are not asleep, but you are not awake either."

"Why would she do such a thing?" Emma lowered her head a little, and a slight shadow fell over her face. "Perhaps to reward some and punish someothers before the soul is fully rested. It is not mean in spirit, just a simple sense of justice she has."

For about a minute or two, they were both completely silent and just kept going forward. It was unpleasant to talk about such things, even in this wierd situation. Then Madison stopped, Emma looked over at her. She paused, sort of trying to explain the whole thing to herself.

"So Mothra, she chose us. Serizawa, you and me. But for what purpose? I don't understand why this is happening to me, why I was taken by Godzilla on Skull Island, what's so special about me?"

The frustration that was inside her was getting to Madison. She always planned to have an answer for everything, always know what to do. But in the last few days her worldview was shattered, in pieces, beyond repair. It made her afraid, afraid that like her mother, she would fall into madness and make wrong decisions that could have a negative effect on everyone.

"You were always special from birth, I didn't know it then, but you were going to grow into something big."

The words of hers caught Maddies attention, Emma seemed to know more about her than she was admitting. Eagerly, she looked up to her, and would finally get an answer to the chaos she was in.

"I have always looked after you and trained you, because I always wanted you to stay strong and to be able to take care of yourself once I shouldn't be there anymore. But I never really wanted you to come in contact with the Titans, but I should have known that you have always been connected with them. You've been fascinated by them since the day you first saw him."

"What are you trying to tell me?" Madison grabbed her mother by the arms, tried to pressure her, she was this close to finding out what was behind all this. Emma smiled and patted Madison on the head.

"Many, thousands of years ago, humans and Titans lived in symbiosis. They managed to communicate with them, to help each other. And some of them were special, they had special abilities that they used in harmony with the Titans. But after they went to sleep, these humans slowly disappeared and for generations these abilities would be lost. But you were born differently, you were born into a world where we found the Titans again. A genetic mistake, maybe even fate so to speak, makes you a direct heir to the ancient humans."

Madison let go of Emma. It would make sense, after all, all people on the planet are probably descended from them, but Madison was even more like them, not on the outside, but on the inside. Emma put her hands on Madison's shoulder, her daughter's heart pounded hard.

"You are Mothras successor, you must help the humans and Titans survive together. It won't be easy, but I'm sure you'll do it."

Madison became dizzy at the thought of what this meant. She was only 14, and already more pressure and weight had been put on her shoulders than any other person almost knocked her down, but Emma caught her daughter and helped her stand up again.

"M-Mom... I'm just a... human being..." Madison began to tremble, all her fears about being responsible for these things came out. Desperately hoping that it was only a dream, a delusion, but inside she knew it was all real. Her mother hugged her, stroked Maddie gently over the head and tried to calm her down.

"You will become much stronger, I have helped you, but now you must grow yourself and try to do the best with your strength. Don't be like me, you have potential to do a lot of good. I am proud of you and what you have become, but now I will see nothing more of it in the future."

Madison had calmed down and slowly let go of her mother. She felt overwhelmed by the what this would mean for her, for what was to come in the future.

"I'm scared, Mom."

"What is it, that you're afraid of?" Madison's eyes started watering again. The Emotions were running high in her, she felt torn apart and slain by all that was coming.

"I'm afraid of ending up like you, of falling into madness. I cannot do it alone."

"Don't worry, you won't be alone, he'll save you from it."

"He?"

Suddenly she felt the ground vibrate, she heard that sound again, that, humming. Something big and heavy was coming towards her. Emma smiled as she looked behind her daughter. Madison turned slowly; she knew who it was.

In front of them stood Godzilla. But not as tall as he usually was, about six feet tall in fact, about the height of a human being. His head was directed towards Madison and Emma, but his eyes were inspecting the environment they were in, visibly he seemed to be as surprised as Madison. For him, it had to be even more confusing. But Maddie realized quickly that he seemed to know what was going on, and right now he had only one interest.

"Together, you will make it. Human and Godzilla had been in this relationship long before that, I also found that out when I was working on the ORCA signal to awaken the Titans. It was your voice that I used for it. Every creature reacted differently, but all were aware that this was a new Alpha."

Madison looked at Godzilla the whole time Emma was talking, she couldn't take her eyes off him. They were about 20 feet apart, and yet she felt even closer to him than before.

"You and Serizawa helped defeat Ghidorah, it wouldn't have worked without you. Since then he had noticed you, watched you, but he needed time to heal and grow, just like you. He likes you, and I believe you feel the same about him."

Emma was right about what she said, and Maddie felt even more she wanted to be with him. Her two eyes crossed again. Madison slowly started to walk towards him, each step making her heartbeat faster, everything felt so warm, she was reddening.

Emma smiled and turned around, ready to go. But Madison noticed that someone was slowly leaving her, and she didn't want that. She looked over her shoulder to the side, just as Emma was about to disappear. Godzilla turned his head to the side, confused about what she was doing, also unsure what to do. About two meters separated the two of them.

"Wait here." Madison whispered as she was leaving Godzilla, she couldn't just let her mother go.

"Mom wait!" She ran to her mother. "Maddie?" Emma was almost gone into the void, almost like a memory. Madison rushed up to Emma and hugged her, squeezing her so tight she almost choked out her mother's breath.

"Mom..." "What is it Maddie... we don't have a lot of time left." Once again, Emma took her daughter in her arms and stroked her head to calm her, she cried and shook.

"I know you've done a lot of bad things; I hate you for them, I probably can never really forgive you for them, but I miss you too at the same time. You are my mother, I love you for that, I want us to be a family again."

Emma stroked Madison over the head and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

They both knew it wouldn't go on.

"Madison, I also love you as my daughter, but the reason I sacrificed myself then was because I knew that you and Mark would not be safe as long as I was alive and could cause harm. Deciding to die was the justice for me after all I've done. And the months in that void helped me think about the things I did. But my task to help you is now over, my soul can finally go out forever, all I can leave you with are memories."

"Mom, I can't do this." She cried in her mom's jacket and held on as tight as she could.

Godzilla felt Maddie was sad, so he watched them have their conversation. Very carefully he approached them slowly, interested in what was going on, his tail was erect and swinging from side to side, he let out a soft rumble and sniffed around, there was a strange feeling in the air.

"Maddie, look at me." Emma said. Her daughter looked up at her again with tears in her eyes.

"You got to let go. Maddie, I've brought you more pain and suffering than anyone before, I don't want you to cling to your past like I did and make bad choices. I have tried to help you as much as I can now, but you must go down this road yourself. I am the past, I am dead, but you and Godzilla still have a great future ahead of you and do not let anyone stand in your way."

Emma squeezed her daughter again to comfort her, and she felt a little better.

"I love you, Madison."

"I love you, too, Mom."

Madison squeezed her mother tight to feel her one last time. However, she soon realized how the contact to her mother was diminishing and soon she felt nothing, and her mother disappeared, it felt like she slowly but surely turned to dust.

The past and the life she had then, that was gone now, in the end only memories. In front of her, or rather behind her stand, lay an uncertain, strange and eerie future, without knowing what it might bring.

She turned around and felt it slowly getting colder around her, but there was a kind of warmth coming from him that attracted her. Godzilla had been watching her the whole time, obviously as confused and lost as Madison was in this situation. Maddie didn't really know how to deal with it, how to move on.

Godzilla had taken up a much lower, almost vertical position like a dinosaur, and pushed his head under Madison's arm and snuggled up lightly to calm her down, much like a dog or cat, although Godzilla was much smarter than them.

In fact, he managed to release her from then fears and forget them for once. When his head was under her arm, she looked down, and stroked his neck until the sharp plates on his back started. "Thanks for coming." Whisperd Madison softly.

Godzilla had never approached a human in this way before, the first time he had ever directly cared for someone

Godzilla slowly left her and straightened up again, he seemed to have heard it. He was much taller than her, despite his "shrinking" in this room, but by no means did he look threatning in any way when she looked up at him, quite the contrary, she felt much safer. They both looked into each other's eyes and it was as if they were just sharing all their memories of what happened in their lives, and above all, understanding.

Godzilla gave her that very worried look again, obviously after seeing all her pain and suffering. Madison wasn't sure what she saw, there were so many memories of so long times that no one had ever seen, more or less astonished, she was the only one who had a clear view of his past. And what she recognized clearly, despite all her differences and the amount of memories, was that he too was already in pain and suffering as she had experienced. Thrown into this position of a king, when he realized that there seemed to be no one else but him, and actually wanted to be left alone. Like Madison, he had to make hard decisions and carry a burden, a reason why he didn't really want to have anything to do with people's problems.

But he had noticed who Madison was, she had helped him, because despite her trust in him she was aware that something had to be done. Only she had the courage to go her own way against her own mother and do something against Ghidorah, no matter what it took.

Madison walked closer to him, slowly touching his arm, he flinched back briefly, slowly stroking her hands over his shoulder and grabbing his head on both cheeks. She felt a slight twitch as she did so, he wasn't used to this kind of approach and affection. Still Madison wouldn't let go of him and pulled his head down to her directly, they were very close together like no one had ever been before. She felt the very gentle rumble and the vibration in his body from her fingers, it was that what gave her a reassuring and safe feeling. Slowly she pressed her forehead against his, looking him straight in the eyes, their eyes were fixated. She could feel his heartbeat, it seemed to be faster, similar to hers, almost in sync.

Even if she didn't see it, her face was red, Maddie felt so warm, she was sweating from being nervousness, so close to him, uncertain about her feelings and her future.

Godzilla noticed this, he noticed her fears and anxiety that still prevailed, and he knew this feeling just as well.

Making difficult decisions that affect everyone's life is not an easy thing, it puts a lot of pressure on someone because you want to do what you think is right. If you are alone in these decisions, you can break under it, and eventually do something that hurts you even more.

His back and began to glow again in a white blue light, the space around them took on a bluish tone. Godzilla approached Madison and gently and gently hugged her. Gently he put his heavy arms around her, put his snout on her head, and blew a hot wave of air through her hair. He tried to imitate what he had done on the beach to keep her with him, never had he really hugged another one without it being a bloody fight.

But Maddie had given him emotional closeness, something he had never really felt before. He used to want to live a lone life in his cave, to be the last of his kind, to spend his life in peace. But then she came along and helped him shed his hard shell and let his feelings out.

She snuggled up to him, had her head against his chest, it felt rough, but not unpleasant. It rose and fell as he breathed in and out deeply, she felt his snout rubbing tenderly against her head, the hot air from his nose came out and wiped through Madison's hair again, it made her tired, she wanted to go back to sleep.

She was happy that there would be someone for her. She was no longer alone.

The world around her was wrapped in a deep blue and slowly they left this place, but it would not be the last time they met here.

And when she fell asleep again, she felt something, as if someone was speaking to her.

"Good night, Madison."

"Good night, Madison."


	10. Somewhere I belong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now Madison knows were she belongs, but her journey to becoming the succesor to the mighty Mothra does not end here, she has to travel together with Godzilla, and claim her place.

**Chapter 10: Somewhere I belong**

It was night, the village had already come to rest, only a few guards were still on the wall to watch out for further danger. But one person was still walking through the tents, right next to Godzilla. Aaron was assigned to watch over Madison overnight, because the Iwi usually sleep in the trees where there was no danger.

But he had decided to stay down with her, so Godzilla wouldn't be angry if he woke up.

Aaron picked Madison up and carried her in his arms, she was completely gone, she was so exhausted from everything, it's lucky she didn't bleed to death, her wounds were very severe, the jackals had inflicted very deep wounds on Madison.

It was strange for him because one of his friends was mauled by these animals when they landed here on the island. But for some reason they had held them back from Maddie. Maybe they sensed that she was different than the others?

Ikimi and the other Iwi kept him out of the story for a large part, despite the fact that Madison had been here much shorter than him. He felt a little jealous at those thoughts, but he just figured there must be a good reason.

Probably because she arrived with Godzilla who was worshipped by the Iwi as a god, even more than Kong. He couldn't quite remember his time with Monarch, but Godzilla was always a focus of them.

All he knew was that Gojira's species came from a time long before humans, the earth filled with radioactive energy, and an environment similar to Skull Island, the last natural site of this ancient flora and fauna.

A tent located on the left side of Godzilla's was made for Madison to sleep in and receive medical care. He went inside and put her on a pile of straw in the right corner, she was still fast asleep. Carefully he looked around the tent, looking for a cure to her wounds, the few lights from the torches helped him to see, with difficulty. He found a bowl that had been mixed with a yellow paste, this should help the wound to heal faster.

Quietly he knelt down, put the bowl aside and carefully removed the bandage, the wound was still fresh, so it was not allowed to lie open for long, an inflammation would be fatal for anyone who had already lost a lot of blood.

But when Aaron had completely unrolled her shoulder, he was a bit shocked. There was nothing wrong with the wound, on the contrary, it had healed very far, too far. When they took Madison away from the field, the cuts and bites were obviously very dangerously deep. But now these had turned into very shallow wounds that appeared almost like big scratches. Within a few hours, she had already regenerated herself by a good deal.

 _"Who are you?"_ he asked himself.

Carefully he smeared the wound and looked at Madison, who was still sleeping. She was quite pretty for her age he had to admit. He was sure the other kids at school would like her. Well that if she ever went there again.

At least he hoped she would. He was young while arrival on this Island, but still much older than she was. He didn't want any child to spend the rest of it's life here, especially one who was not even from here. This island was like a nightmare sometimes, but even this nightmare had its beauty and calm side sometimes.

Aaron bandaged her wounds again and put some more straw under her head. Then he left the tent and sat down to keep watch. He didn't think there was any danger in the vicinity of Godzilla now, but still, it couldn't hurt.

He thought about some things, like going to bed every night. But in this time it was even more so. Madison partly reminded him of him when he came to this island, determined but unsure what was happening around it. His life had been completely turned upside down, as had hers. He had to learn to survive, to find his place in this world.

For him it was the decision to pay his debt and to protect others. The Iwi were unique in this world, the last race left in the natural order of the Titans. But mistakes from Aaron's past had almost made them disappear, so he felt obligated to help them in exile on this island. And now he was to protect Maddie because the Iwi said she was unique. Whoever she was, something big was going to happen to her.

* * *

_Madison ran through a jungle, the lush green of the vegetation crossed with the blood red sky. She was hunted again, she didn't know what, but everything in her told her to run away as far as she could. She heard a mighty roar that roared through the forest, making the earth tremble. But her determination prevailed, she ran as fast as she could, jumped over tree trunks and slipped under thick undergrowth. She felt so light as a feather, everything she did was instinctive._

_But then she came to a dead end, a cliff. In front of her was the green island, where smaller areas of forest were set on fire. There was no way out, she couldn't go on, but instead of being afraid, something inside her said to hold her ground. The earth trembled as the massive steps came closer and closer._

_Over the thicket of the forest, a tall, dark figure slowly appeared, Madison couldn't make out anything more about her except that she appeared somewhat humanoid. Flame and devastation followed his path, and the forest she ran from quickly turned into a Blazing Flame Sea, the heat around her making her sweat profusely._

_The mysterious figure towered hundreds of meters above her. Madison gritted her teeth when she looked up, she couldn't make out the exact figure, only she knew it was staring at her, with two completely white eyes. She clenched her fists and held her ground._

_As the flames began to climb slowly up the creature's legs, making them seem even more terrifying, as none came reactive, it drew out its fist to strike her. But Madison didn't think about running away, she was ready to fight. The fist struck close to Madison, almost knocking her down, but she didn't hesitate and reached out with her fist to hit it._

_But something pulled her back and she moved it a lot. A part of the cliff on which she stood broke off and she had to go down a lot of rocks into a very deep crevice. She closed her eyes and waited for an impact, infinite pain, but it never came._

_Instead, she opened her eyes again. When she looked up, she realized that she had landed in some kind of ravine or something, a few dozen meters separated her from the surface. She stood up carefully, it was very dark, she could hardly see anything._

_"Am I in hell" she said as a joke. Her voice held through the cave and drew the attention of something. Crawling noises, like insects could be heard, and other, almost demonic-like roars. From the deepest and darkest corner Maddie saw yellow lights, eyes flashing, they didn't dare to go out completely, but she saw the creatures' approximate outlines, they seemed to be strangely built, many legs and eyes up to a neck or something. She turned around, behind her were also these yellow eyes._

_Madison quickly noticed that she was surrounded by this insect-like creature climbing the walls._

_Hectically she looked around, ready to defend herself, trying to see where the first attack would come from. But instead she heard a lightning strike, immediately she looked up, it began to rain, another thunder sounded, followed by another lightning bolt, yellowish in color._

_Something grabbed her by the back of the neck, someone squeezed her and lifted her up, she struck backwards but nothing could hit. A deep, demonic laughter sounded and with a jerk she was pulled out of the ravine again. Rain was pouring down on her at a massive rate that made it feel like rocks, and suddenly she was back on the surface high in the sky._

_She was released, down into a field. She fell with her back to the ground, and again she was unharmed, but it felt like something was tearing apart the very reality she was in._

_Something or someone was pressing on her head and back. It seemed as if someone was trying to break her spine and skull, slowly she got scared, she tried to defend herself, to escape near death. She screamed and roared in rage and despair. Once she hit something with her arm, it felt like a leg. Then it stopped, whoever had done it let go of her, and a deep, threatening laugh sounded, and then it disappeared, whoever it was._

_For some time she just lay there and did not dare to get up again. The sky was completely cloudy and black, every few seconds it thundered or lightning struck. The grass she was on felt soft, something positive about her current situation._

_But she noticed someone coming up behind her. Like lightning, she jumped up, no chance would she give, she was ready to fight._

_She turned, and wanted to rush out and attack immediately. But what she saw kept her from doing anything, let alone saying anything._

_In front of her stood someone in a black jacket, blue shirt and jeans. It looked just like her, it was the same clothes she was wearing in Boston. The hood was over her head and looking down at the floor, her face was not recognizable._

_"He-Hello?" Madison stuttered, she felt fear, bigger than ever, something felt very threatening about this thing. Slowly she walked towards the other person, one step at a time she laid down on the wet grass. When she was about 2 meters away from the other person, she started to laugh. It sounded like her own laugh, only more spiteful, like she was crazy._

_"Hello, sister." She said. Madison froze where she was standing. She was shivering, she was afraid of what was in front of her stance, what it would mean._

_Her other self raised her head, and a terrible grin, with two yellow eyes, Ghidorah's eye, golden scales that started at the neck, and horns growing on the head, also from Ghidorah. It was as if she had connected with Ghidorah._

_"No, no, no, no!" Madison screamed and squeezed her eyes together and tried to escape this nightmare. She suddenly became very warm inside her, heat came out of her body, she felt it spreading up her back and into her head. With her eyes closed, she could only recognize a bright blue light._

_"Do you really want to do this?" Asked the other Madison, and slowly walked towards the Real Madison, clawed hands ready to strike. "NO." Roared Maddie and released the heat that was inside her. The whole room around her was bathed in a very bright blue light until there was no more of the dream. The storm, the thunder, all the sounds and voices she heard disappeared._

_She did not know where she was now. She closed her eyes and curled herself up to sleep. She felt like in the weightlessness of space, she didn't care what was coming, she wanted and needed to rest. Beautiful things, she had to think of that now. Her favorite things, she thought of the melody of her favorite songs, what she always listened to, to calm down. But at some point he thought of Godzilla again. How she was close to him and how he looked after her. This made her even more relaxed, knowing that someone was there to watch over her. She came to rest and disappeared this dream._

* * *

Her eyes opened, it was the middle of the night, all the lights were out, the air around her was very cold, but she herself was sweating heavily and felt hot. Her breath was hectic, this nightmare had been strange, to think about it made her panic easily again.

"Hello?" She asked if anyone was there. She was afraid to be alone in the darkness, the only thing she saw was the light star sparkle that went through the ceiling of her tent. She closed her eyes again, trying not to think of anything, but the thought of it reminded her of this nightmare. She squeezed her eyes together and turned wildly back and forth, from side to side. Her injured shoulder, however, hurt too much and she lay in bed breathing heavily.

She moaned, started to cry again. "I want to go home." she sobbed.

Steps came from outside, out of fear she held her breath, even though she had nothing to fear. A candle was lit, and the light gave a shadow over the tent. "Madison?" Aaron's voice asked. She did not answer back. However, she took another deep breath to get some air.

"I'm coming in now." He said softly. With the candle in his right hand he pushed the entrance of the tent to the side.  
"I heard you crying. Are you okay? Is it something with the wound?" She was silent, not a word came out of her mouth, she turned her head to the side, away from him. Aaron sighed, "Please, you can trust me, talk to me. She took another deep breath.

"I had a nightmare, it was, strangely, somehow like I had seen it all before. I had panicked, scared of it, like maybe something like this would happen to me. I want to go home to my dad."  
She sounded quite exhausted; her wounds had given her a slight fever. Aaron did not know what to say to that.

"Do you know what that feels like?" She asked.  
"Yeah. All too well. I had tried to resist my father, because I disagreed with him that nature can balance itself. That we must have control over these things."

Madison remembered back to the day Godzilla took her from Castel Bravo. She and her father had also argued, for the exact same reason, only she believed it was good that the Titans were out, and that they had brought order to the Earth. He thought they should be controlled, not left to their own devices.

"Do you miss him very much?" she asked.  
"Yes, very much. I regret what our last conversation was, I never got to say goodbye to him. I had sent him a message with a cassette tape out to sea, hoping it would be found. But who knows if he is still alive."  
Madison knew Brook's father was alive, having visited the facility and been present at Mothras Awakening. And indeed, the tape had reached him, and that he might have gone looking for him. But that was all she knew.

* * *

**Next Morning, Castel Bravo**

Still very sleepy, Ilene woke up, woken by the alarm clock from the cell phone that was on the table next to her. It was a classical Japanese music piece, but it was giving her a bit of a headache right now.

Her head was booming, and she felt very sleepy and emaciated, the taste in her mouth was very bland and dried out. It took some time to reorient to the environment around her. As she looked around, Ilene realized that she was not in her own quarters, but in Marks. She turned around and couldn't see him, but he was not lying next to her, she got a little nervous about what had happened.

"Mark? Mark are you there?" She shouted across the room, but no answer. "Take it easy Ilene, maybe he's out in the fresh air."

She got out of bed, but only now did she notice that she was not wearing any clothes. She quickly grabbed and wrapped the blanket around her, she was a little embarrassed and didn't want someone like Ford to just barge in again. "What happened yesterday?" She thought to herself. As she tried to remember last night and searched for her clothes in the room, she came across something hard with her foot.

When she looked down, she saw a vodka bottle, no, two completely empty. "Oh no." Now she remembered a little bit of what happened yesterday.

She had entered Mark's room to talk to him, but he almost returned to the bottle again.

* * *

_"Ilene what are you doing here?" "I came to see you, to talk to you how you are...Mark, please don't tell me that's what I think it is." He said nothing and kept quiet when he had just opened a bottle of vodka and put another one next to him on the nightstand._

_Ilene immediately went up to him and ripped the bottle out of his hand. "Give me that back!" he said with an aggressive tone. As it seemed, he already had a drink before. "Mark, I don't want you to fall into that again. I know it's hard for you, but you can't do this to yourself or your family again."_

_"I don't have a family anymore!" He yelled. Ilene recoiled, never before had she seen Mark so aggressive towards her. Her eyes were shocked, Mark realized that. There was a strange tension in the room that they had never had together before._

_She took a deep breath and gathered all her courage. Her gaze quickly changed from shocked to angry. "What am I to you then?" She asked it with full conviction. He averted his gaze, too ashamed of what he had done._

_"Mark, I know what you're going through, I can't imagine, but we're together, I'm here for you." He looked at her, he regretted what he had done again, he would make the same mistake as before, shutting himself off from everything around him._

_"I'm leaving. If you need anything, you can call me." Said Ilene, walking towards the door with a narrow, dishonest smile._

_"Wait!" Mark called after her. She sighed, on the one hand reassuringly, on the other uncertainly._

_"Maybe we can drink it together. I know, not a good solution, but I'd rather do it with you." When she turned to him and he held the other bottle in his hand, she raised her eyebrow a little thoughtfully, but thought what could be so bad about it._

* * *

Afterwards everything becomes a little convoluted. The last thing she could remember was them bumping into each other with two shot glasses and a long discussion about any animals or dinosaurs that came to her mind.

Ilenen shook her head. At least she had partially remembered what had happened, and she could already guess what kind of night that was likely to be. She searched the room for a moment, and found her clothes and some fresh clothes stacked on an armchair, with a note from Mark there.

She picked them up and blinked a few, "I'm busy for a while, have been doing your laundry." She looked down; the clothes looked very fresh.

After she changed, she got her cell phone to check the time. It was 10:30. Breakfast in the cafeteria will be over soon. Before she went out, she knocked the vodka bottles into the garbage and changed the bed.

She ran straight to the cafeteria to make herself another breakfast. Nothing special happened along the way, it seemed to be a normal day here, no stress or pressure from any titans or similar incidents. Today she would have had the morning off anyway, maybe that was one reason why she decided to drink with Mark.

Actually, having a day off in Monarch wasn't really like a free day of normal job, you're still technically on duty and if something happens, you have to be ready, no matter what state you're in.

When she arrived at the cafeteria it was about 10:40, which is 20 minutes before breakfast. There were hardly any people left, except for a few soldiers and other scientists, who also had their day off. She poured herself a coffee with 2 sugars and a sandwich.

Ilene sat down on a table away from the others. Normally she didn't mind chatting with others a little bit, but she felt a little bit carded and she also enjoyed a little space because now when it was crowded she had to squeeze in between some other soldiers to join her group and she didn't really like that.

While she was drinking her coffee she took her cell phone out of her bag and put some things on it. Nothing exciting or thrilling had happened, no Titan seemed to have attacked nor had she missed any important meetings. Relieved, she breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she did not have to go on a mission hungover.

For a few minutes she just ate and drank happily and listened to music but when she saw the canteen door open in the corner of her eye, looked up and saw that it was Rick, she sighed again. He walked right up to her; Ilene feared something had probably happened. Actually, she didn't want to be seen by someone who knew her well, but the coffee was starting to look like it wasn't so bad.

She immediately asked him, "Good morning Rick, what's up?"  
"Not much, have you seen Mark, I really need to show him something." She shook her head. "Damn."

Escape Rick quietly.  
"I've been looking for him for two hours now, where the hell is this guy?" Ilene's face became worried, she feared something had happened.

"Where the hell have you been looking?" "Everywhere, in the archive, on the roof, in the reading room in the control room, I even called the Argo to see if he might have gone aboard.

"Hmm, have you already looked in his lab?" "You know he never goes there." Ilene nodded at him and thought about where else he might be. She didn't like it at all.

"Let's ask Foster, maybe she knows, she should be in the control room by now." Rick grabbed his forehead. "Good idea why I didn't think of that." They immediately made their way to the control room.

Ilene was really hoping he hadn't done anything bad. Maybe Madison's pain was deeper than she thought.

* * *

**Castel Bravo Control Room**

The two of them stormed into the room, Rick first and Ilene a bit behind, she still felt a bit heavy on her legs with her hangover. Rick frantically looked around for Foster, while Ilene immediately went to a control pad and looked in the system for incidents about last night. Accidents are always reported quickly as there are cameras almost everywhere except in the living areas, although it is rumored that even there there may be some surveillance.

Ilene breathed a sigh of relief, there were no accidents or anything like that, so the chances of the worst happening were relatively low. She didn't think that Mark would do anything like that, but it could be assumed.

"Foster! she heard Rick call out as she walked through the door into the control room, accompanied by Barns who had just given her a tablet with some information from the mission reports of the past days on it. The two ran toward her, Foster noticed the two of them raising their heads but not as they let their reports through.

"Good morning Rick hadn't seen her yet today, what's up?" she said in a sarcastic tone. "We're looking for Mark, do you know where he is?" Ilene asked. "I mean I've been looking for him all day, he can't just disappear. Everywhere he usually is, he's not."

Foster raised her head and looked at him questioningly. "Didn't he tell you he'd be in his lab today?" Rick suddenly looked all beat up while Ilene had to hold it in, in order together to keep herself from laughing. "No..."

"Interesting. Anyway, he had asked me for the key card for the lab for the first time today, it seemed strange to me, but he said that he wanted to work on something.

Ilene nodded smiling, "Thanks, we were worried about him. Come on Rick." She pulled him along with her, he felt pretty stupid.

* * *

Rick and Ilene arrived at the Labor Sector. Everything here seemed a bit more sterile and quiet, largely because every major scientist working directly with the Titans was given a small laboratory and workspace, but few actually used it and Mark was the last person they expected to see.

The walls around the door were made of glass, but they were just covered, and only a little light from a lamp or something shone through.

Rick knocked on the door. "Let's see if he's in." They stood there for a while. Ilene leaned against the wall and looked to her right, where there was a large glass wall in the large cavity where the Mutos were stored, and thought.

Rick knocked on the door, three times in a row. Ilene began to worry that no one was answering. Suddenly they heard someone unlocking the door, the keys on the collar rattling against the wood. "Mark?" Ilene called out, loud enough for him to hear her. "Yes, just a moment!" He called back loudly. She took a deep breath, the worry that something had happened to him was gone. Still a little shaky on her legs she leaned against the wall behind her again.

"And how was last night?" Rick asked, quietly enough for Mark not to hear, Ilene looked over at him. "How's it going?" "You look a little like you've been drinking." Ilene grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "Yesterday Mark tried to get drunk again, alone, thought I'd join him."

"And?" "And what?" "Did something happen?" Ilene shrugged her shoulder again. "I can only remember a little, the rest is blurry or just gone. That's why I was a little worried about him, you can imagine what he's going through right now."

Rick wanted to throw something in, but Mark, who had just almost hit him with the door, interrupted him, it opened to the outside. "Careful old friend." Rick said. Mark nodded at him and Ilene. "We've been looking all over for you."

Mark had a slight smile on his face. "Hello, come in, I've made some coffee."

Rick and Ilene walked into the room, Mark seemed to be just setting up. On the right side from the entrance was a rather large window, which in turn gave a view of the other large glass wall towards Muto's skull. In the middle was a round white table on which Mark had just placed a package, paper and other things, as well as his laptop. On the walls were empty shelves where Mark had just taken down the plastic sheets, the one on the left was about two and a half meters high, that in the middle was about one, and above it a screen, probably for meetings, on the right window side was a desk on which there were already some documents and a coffee machine layers.

"It's all new, I've been helping with the preparation for some time and I've been doing some research on my laptop."

He poured two cups of coffee and handed them to the two of them. Rick sat down at the table and put his laptop on top of it once, Mark sat down at his desk.

"You didn't really want the lab, why now?" Ilene said. Who was just looking around.  
"Yes, that's true, but since I don't really have many chances of finding Maddie anywhere right now, After Foster had to call off the search because it was more of a favor.

He took a sip of coffee cup and put her beside him."

"So you're still determined to find her?" "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she survived, she had it out for Ghidorah even then. Godzilla wouldn't kill her, he had no reason to."

Ilene nodded and took another sip from her cup.  
"So what were you working on just then?" asked Rick who was preparing something on his laptop himself.  
"Well, I was trying to analyze Godzilla's physiology and psychology." He got up from his desk and started typing on his own laptop a few times.

"We know that Godzilla is related to the Permian archosaurs, and today's other animals include crocodiles and birds. One could assume that he is very similar to the crocodiles in physiology, but his psychology is far more complex than that."

"So you're trying to figure out what he's up to with Maddie?" "Exactly, the King theory that Ilene had told me wouldn't sound too different, but I'm still a little skeptical about it. Anyway, I'm just at the beginning of it."  
He crossed his arms and looked at his screen. Ilene smiled slightly, at least she saw that he would not give up.

"Maybe I can help you out with that." Rick said, and slid his laptop over to him. Mark folded up his and pushed it away. "Are those the territorial routes of Godzilla?" He asked. Ilene walked up to him and leaned over his shoulder.

"Exactly. I compared them, we could never tell exactly where he was swimming to but it gives us an approximate course."

He pushed a button and saw Mark's eyes widening in shock. Ilene looked over his shoulder and almost choked.

"Skull Island?"

When Mark pronounced it, an uncomfortable mood went through the room.  
"What is he doing there?!" "We don't know, although I could imagine something."  
Rick said and picked up his laptop again, immediately started typing something.  
"Everything here at Monarch is based largely on speculation, and I'm doing the same here." He plays a recording, Mark stands up and looks over his shoulder.  
"When Ghidorah awakened the other Titans, contacts with all the bases either broken off or kept sending us recordings."  
"On Skull Island, we placed sensors and some cameras on drones."

Rick typed in some more input, now it showed the last sensor readings. These were responsible for the underground of the island, because it was suspected that there is a large cave system underneath. It also showed possible dramatic changes in vibrations. Rick pointed to the seismographic waves and how they rose from one to the other.

"This is the data the sensors picked up, we have a hunch that this is the large skull crawler population there. We didn't get anything after that, so we don't know anything about the condition of the island."

"Kong is at the top of the foodchain there, but maybe this time it was too much even for him." Ilene said. "That might explain Godzilla's route, after all, he has a very strong desire for order whenever a natural balance is broken."

"It's possible that this insect also came from there." Said Mark. Ilene and Rick looked at him in surprise. "What insect?"

"Well, the research I started today also involved this Titan that recently visited our base." Mark went to his desk to get his notes. Ilene saw that Serizawa's notebook was next to it but didn't say anything. Mark flipped through the notes. "The lab wasn't quite sure what it was because there wasn't much material. Anyway, they said it was probably arthropod DNA, probably an insect. That would explain the rapid wing flapping and maneuverability."

Ilene was thinking. "Like a dragonfly." Mark looked behind him at her and nodded. "At least there seem to be great similarities between the two species." "And let me guess, you're already pretty sure that there's a connection between that and what happened on Skull Island?"

Rick asked with a more confident smile. Mark was a little predictable for coming to conclusions quickly. "I would be very surprised if there was no connection between the two events."

"It was probably too much for the big ape." Joked Rick. "And Godzilla will probably take his place if he is defeated." Ilene said. Mark crossed his arms and gritted his teeth again, thinking about what he should do now. "We should start an expedition there." Rick raised his eyebrow, Ilene sighed.

"You know that Foster called off the search for Maddie without much evidence." "I know, I'm still not giving up. Let's just say we go on a mission to put the sensors back up, so we can look for her."

"Sorry to disappoint you... well, not entirely." Mark looked at Rick confused. "what do you mean?" "Well, there's actually a mission scheduled for it, but not for another 10 months. They want to wait until the situation on the island calms down."

Mark's reaction came as no surprise to anyone. Frustrated, he sighed and rubbed his hands across his face, exhausted, tired and hungry, he got up and walked over to his desk and put his arms on it, looking at the papers and documents in front of him, up to the window where the Mutos' head was being transported.

Rick leaned his arm over the armchair and said, "Look Mark, Maddie's a pretty smart girl when she's on Skull Island, she probably already knows a few basic things about the island, the best thing she can do is find the people's village.

Ilene looked over at Rick, she found him a little tactless sometimes, but this time Mark seemed to agree with him. "You're probably right, we can only hope." And Mark said. "I will continue to work on it as soon as we have a clear indication of where she is I can take it to Foster and start a mission. Today though...I have to hit the hay...the last one after was...a little exhausting." He yawned and walked out of the room. "If you're looking for me, I'll be in my quarters." he called after them.

Rick turned with a grin to Ilene, who scratched her neck in embarrassment. "Anything to say or-" "Oh, shut up, Rick."

* * *

**The next day, Skull Island**

She felt something wet touching her head, and from her forehead down to her face, she opened her eyes, this time she did not hesitate and opened her eyes, immediately she felt how much more energy she had in her.

The Iwi Woman who was taking care of her got scared when Madison straightened up in a flash. Maddie saw around her, she was back in a tent, but heard a heavy rumble from outside, followed by a small tremor. Maddie jumped up, feeling herself at full strength again, she looked down at her bandage, no pain came away. She heard another loud rumble from outside, it was Godzilla. She ran out of the tent, the sun shining in her face a lot, blinding her for a brief moment, but a large shadow just passed the wall. She turned to him, Godzilla was walking along the wall and looking for something.

"Hey Godzilla!" Maddie called to him, high, loud enough to hold it through the valley. Godzilla stopped, turned his head over to her and pushed a contentedly lying humming sound off him. Madison smiled and waved to him, in response he raised his neck and pushed a low roar out and continued walking along the wall.

"Madison!" She heard Aaron's voice behind her. He and some other Iwi, including Ato and Ikimi, ran to her and said, "Maddie what are you doing here, your injuries may not have healed yet."

Only now did she remember the injury she had, probably her adrenaline had just been pumped up so much that her pain was relieved to a point she no longer felt it. Her heart was beating strongly, now she expected the pain to come, but it never came.

She looked down at her bandage and tore off the piece that was supposed to keep her arm stable. "what the hell are you doing?" Aaron yelled, which briefly scared the Iwi around him. "I want to try something." Maddie said, moving her arm back and forth, it felt normal again. "What the fuck?" Aaron cursed softly, shaking his head. "Anyway, go back to the tent, we'll check it out in a bit, but we have a lot of preparation to do."

Maddie looked up at Aaron from her arm in surprise. "What's going on here?" She asked. "Godzilla seems to have stirred something up." Said Aaron, who turned briefly to Ato and the others. They didn't say, and just nodded. "They say something's coming, something bad. And he seems to feel it." Madison turned her head to Godzilla again, she felt it too, something was coming.

"Come on, let's get the bandage off you first, the elders want to talk to you right away."

He said, trying to drag Madison by the arm towards the tent. "I'll do that." Ikimi spoke in a gentle voice. Aaron looked down at Madison, who nodded to her in agreement.  
"All right, I have to make some preparations." He said, and immediately walked through the village, making no effort to hide the fact that he was stressed, all the Iwi except Ato and Ikimi following after him.

She reached out her hand to Maddie, but she shook her head "I feel fine, don't worry."  
Ikimi nodded and pointed to a log lying next to them, which was to serve as a bench. They sat down on it, Maddie made her shirt free in the place where the bandage was, and Ikimi carefully began to remove the bandage. Usually, she had always felt pain from such things, but now she didn't feel anything.

"How long had I been asleep?" She asked Ato, who was rubbing his chin and watching Godzilla, "How long was I asleep? "Two nights long. Maybe that's why the shadow came back." "The Shadow?" She asked.

Ato was silent for a brief moment, he had become nervous, something Maddie wouldn't expect from an Iwi, especially one like him. "The elders and we will have to explain. A journey lies ahead of you."

She got a queasy feeling about it, her heart began to beat strongly again, so far her experiences with the oldest had been anything but pleasant. When Ikimi had removed the bandage, she looked down at her shoulder. The wounds were gone, only a slight scar had remained. "How the hell?" Escape in Madisons thoughts.

"Let your powers come to light." Said Ikimi. She didn't answer, the whole situation was still bizarre, she didn't really know if she would be able to cope with it, but she got new hope that it would all be over as soon as she came back home.

She got up, pulled up her shirt again and made her way to the tent. "What are you doing?" Ato asked her. "I'm changing." She called out.

Madison entered her tent and took her backpack and sat down with it. The laundry she had put in should have been dry by now. Out she took her jacket, her blue and red Boston Socks T-shirt and her jeans. After she changed, she took her backpack and went out of the tent, looking like she did back in Boston. She let the sun fall on her face, took a deep breath of the humid warm air, and got ready for whatever was to come.

A few minutes later Aaron walked towards her again, the gravel crunching under his boots. She just wrote down a few things from her notebook what she had and then looked up at him. He had firmer boots, like Old Monarch's jacket for expedition, which was already slightly torn, like Tactical Pants, around which was a belt with an ammunition pocket, and around his chest across he had a band that held an old Ak47 on his back.

Madison swallowed briefly, she had been near guns before, she didn't like it and most of the time it meant only one thing: that the situation was serious. "Don't worry, hopefully we won't use these." He said. Obviously, he realized Madison didn't like it. "You don't like guns?" "No." She said quietly. He nodded, agreeing with her with a narrow smile on his face, his experience with guns was also anything but good. "Well come along, we are expected already." She nodded and stood up, throwing her backpack around her shoulder.

Aaron was still very surprised how well she was doing, the little one wasn't as normal as he thought at first. As they walked through the village and the tents, Maddie asked, "I don't want to see those visions again. He looked down at her and patted her gently on the shoulder. "Don't worry, the oldest ones promised me, you've already more than proven yourself to them. By saving the children, you have gained their complete trust."

"Perhaps you're right." Her gaze was directed to the ground and followed small stones that she pushed in front of her, she was no longer interested in her surroundings, even the impressive landscape of the island could not help but voice her inner desire to be with her father again, to return home in safety and peace. Homesickness had caught up with her, a feeling she couldn't suppress, despite her newfound closeness to Godzilla.

Aaron noticed her whispering some words to herself, it still worried him a little bit that this might be too much for you here, maybe she would end up with a mental breakdown. But Madison was doing well, better than many adults who had seen. Ricco, one of the others who arrived with him, went crazy from the short time he spent here. He himself often had a problem with something else here and isolating himself from everyone else by being assigned to protect them gave him a direction to go in a long time ago.

The two of them walked the way up to the ship, the weather changed, it became cooler and much drier, but no rain announced itself. Madison looked up at the sky, the sun was still shining and giving warmth, the wind around her felt like early autumn. "Do you feel that too?" She asked Aaron. "If you mean wind, yes. There's never been weather like this here before."

Madison remembered Ghidorah, even though she didn't want him to, he could create thunderstorms with the beat of his wings alone, and around him, whirlwinds were gathering that could surround him. The thought of that made her nervous that something else might be nearby, maybe that's why Godzilla was so upset today. Maddie herself sensed that something was in the air - you could say her gut reaction alarmed her.

She didn't notice how they had walked up to the ship without much effort. Madison looked down on the village, the residents continued with their daily chores, but this strange weather change unsettled them too. Down in the center of the village, a few residents had gathered in a circle, kneeling down toward the wall, toward Godzilla, and holding their heads down. A prayer to one of their gods.

Godzilla, however, did not pay much attention to them, he still walked nervously up and down the wall, growling loudly, and humming out through his throat. Every now and then he sniffed around in the air and pushed out a soft roar. He wanted to prevent a fight over anything, not near people and not near her.

She looked at him, watching his movements, how he bowed his head back and forth. Then her eyes crossed again. He stopped his head and eyes were now fixed on her alone. Despite the enormous distance between the two of them, he could see extremely well through his sharp eyes, could still recognize her exactly and make her out.

Her vision was not nearly as good as his, but she could still see his orange flaming eyes. For a while they looked at each other, neither of them made a Muchs. Aaron turned and saw how she and Godzilla looked at each other, he watched what she was doing, since the 2 day ritual he wasn't quite sure what her relationship was with Godzilla, especially after she woke up and started talking.

"Give them hope, be good to them." Madison thought of the villagers as they prayed to him, they deserved to feel reassured at that moment. Godzilla lifted his neck and left a gentle humming sound. He turned to the wall, toward the inhabitants, and his back plates began to glow, Godzilla bowed his head down and pulsed with a gentle rumble.

Maddie stood there somewhat shocked, she knew this was not his attack, it was like when they first met at Castel Bravo, it was there to calm her down. She had a light smile on her lips. So he understood her.

"What is he doing." Asked Aaron unsettled, Maddie looked behind her shoulder. "He's answering her prayers, they deserve it." Aaron just nodded confused, unsure what to make of it. "Well, we gotta get in, they're waiting for us."

Madison smiled and sighed again, and followed Aaron back through the entrance to the inside of the ship. They passed some guards, Madison kept her gaze low and avoided eye contact.

As she glanced at her shoes and looked down at the rusty floor where she was deliberately stepping into small puddles to distract herself, she noticed how slowly the dripping noises and her footsteps were holding, her eyes turned forward again as they entered the hall where the oldest ones were already waiting, along with Ato and Ikimi.

Aaron bent slightly as a sign of greeting, the elders did the same. He stepped aside and Maddie walked forward, but he was standing right behind her in case something happened, she just nodded briefly.

 _"A great journey awaits you and our friend Aaron."_ She heard an unknown voice speaking into her head. She was confused at first, looked around the room, but it was neither Atos, Ikimi nor Aaron's voice.

The oldest one of the elders went to the front. He was an older man, about as tall as Maddie herself. His clothes were dyed turquoise, his head had no hair, and his whole body was covered with blue body paint. Next to him stood a woman dressed very similar to him, but her clothes were blue and she seemed a little younger since she still had her hair.

 _"We want to apologize for previous actions that happened to you. We all had to be sure that you will be the one chosen by the gods to defend us with them._ "

Madison already knew what was meant by that, the visions here, the ritual and the conversation with Emma, everything to follow in Mothra's footsteps. Emma had said she was getting stronger and creating, but she didn't realize it, she felt mentally quite weak and doubted herself-

"So you talk to telepathy." _"You're not surprised about that."_

"After all that's gone through my head, I don't have a good reason for it either. However, how do you understand me?"

_"This kind of language is ancient, and there are only a few left in this world who know it, but deep inside of everyone lies it, and the words spoken are universal to everyone."_

_"So, they do not speak in my language, but what they say translates for me, let's say directly...interesting."_

She thought about it but shook her head briefly when she noticed that she was absorbed in it again.

"So, what kind of a journey is this?" She crossed her arms, went into a defensive posture, the elders nodded slightly.

_"A shadow has settled over our island, he has woken up, the devil's right hand, his queen wants revenge for him. He has put our old king to flight, and in return she wants to steal what is yours. Your place in the line."_

"Another titan, then." Also awakened by the calls of Ghidorah to help destroy this world. But the Iwi's description of this one was different; she made Madison wonder about it, a queen they said. Perhaps it was like Mothra to Godzilla, a creature that was in symbiosis with Ghidorah to fight with him. This thought aroused a certain fear in her.

The Titans quickly joined Ghidorah, but not because they were in symbiosis with Godzilla and Mothra. No, they did it because he was the Alpha and their instincts told them to do so, and they changed at will and position to those they followed.

If what Madison thought is true, then there could still be something out there that follows Ghidorah's orders. It probably also meant that she was lucky not to meet Ghidorah in Boston, possibly thanks to Kong.

You could tell Madison was nervous again, her heart was beating a little stronger, but she tried to hide it. The elders continued.

_"Now you must return to the place where all of your predecessors have played their roles. In the direction where the sun goes down, at the other end of the island, there is a temple, built by the people who lived here even before us. There is the fountain of your power."_

"And why didn't the other whatever there is grab it before?" She asked the elders, she took a step forward, she wanted answers.

_"Only you can set it in motion, but you must be careful, for she will watch for this moment, and strike until she gets what she wants."_

"What is 'you'? What is this dark shadow you're telling me?" Her tone changed, she got angrier.

_"An old enemy of your ancestor, and the other gods. And your task is to join him in defeating them."_

"I am a fuckign human being. I don't want to be a part of this thing, I'm not the one you need!" She screamed.

Aaron got a little nervous, he didn't know what to do, if Madison got aggressive with the oldest ones, there could be serious consequences.

"So you want to abandon people again? Even when you swore to help? You were willing to stand up for others, but now you want to give up?" Ikimi said she confronted Maddie directly. Her words felt like ice-cold knives stabbing her.

"No, I..."

"You say these words as if you don't care what happens. You doubt yourself and your abilities, your potential, despite everything you had seen. And yet you're drawn to him, and you want to be with him."

She was talking about Godzilla. Madison refused to admit it, but she knew herself that she was lying, since she had just asked Aaron to take her directly to Godzilla two days ago because she felt safer there.

 _"We have seen that you want to make a difference out there, that you want to help gods and humans alike. You are now being given the chance; will you take it?"_ The elders looked at her. In fact, everyone in the room looked at her expectantly. Maddie felt pressured, the pressure on her was too much. She pressed her hands over her ears, squeezed her eyes together and turned away from everyone, her head against the wall.

Silence prevailed for a moment, a moment of breathing. But it was broken, with a loud roar, Godzilla's voice. It sounded like it did back then when it gave her strength to hold on. She opened her eyes, took her hands off her ears and looked around.

Only she had heard it. No one else.

"So, what are you gonna do?" Ato asked her. Madison took a deep breath and then decided to put it all on one card.

"I will travel there with Godzilla and see if I am part of this ritual, get rid of the shadow, then I will leave this island, go back home.

The elders nodded. _"So be it. Everything is already done; they are waiting for you both at the wall. We will go with you if this is the last moment, we see you."_

Guards went forward and before they knew it, they accompanied everyone out of the ship. Madison stayed closer to Aaron, avoiding eye contact with anyone else.

As they stepped out, she saw Godzilla leaning down against the wall, and when Maddie stepped out, he looked up at the ship expectantly.  
A horn was blown nearby, the deep sound echoing through the valley and sending a signal to the village. The farewell was ready.  
They walked down the hill, Madison did not look up, but again only at her feet, and the stones flying in front of her. When she reached the bottom, she looked up again, everyone in the village had stood by the tents and looked at her, no expression had changed, the emotions were gone. But she felt that they were saying goodbye, even if she did not hear it.

It hurt her somehow, even though she had almost argued with her leaders just a few minutes ago. The eerie silence made the whole thing even more unpleasant for her. Quietly, she could hear drums from the distant drums, apparently that was part of it.

Godzilla followed her slowly, his head following her everywhere. He looked worried, Madison didn't look up at him, and tried to avoid eye contact for a moment. There was a connection between the two of them, it just took Madison a while to get used to this fact.

They had reached the wall, a staircase went up the side, it had been rebuilt, the wood looked fresher than the rest of the wall. Ato and Ikimi nodded to the oldest and guards. These guards carried the group, now consisting only of Ato, Aaron, Ikimi and Madison, further up the stairs.

They rose a little groaning when you stepped on them, but Madison didn't care much about that, she just watched them come up and the journey began. She was the first to reach the top. Right in front of them was Godzilla's head hanging over the wall, turning to her and emitting a gentle hum. Madison looked him in the eye again, and walked forward carefully and slowly a few steps, reaching out her hand and touching his muzzle.

"Hey Big G. I think you know what happens now." She whispered. Godzilla tilted his head slightly to one side, carefully pushing his head forward and rubbing his face a little against Maddie. He was so gentle with her.

"You two must ascend to him now, you must leave soon." Said Ikimi. Madison turned around. "You're not coming?" She asked. Ato and Ikimi shook their heads. But rest assured, we are with you in spirit and praying to both of you." Madison sighed.

"All right, then, Aaron, ready?" He nodded. "Man, I haven't been outside the village in a long time, and even then, not far." "Excited?" She asked him jokingly. "A little bit."

She smiled, if only slightly, to lighten the mood. She looked at Godzilla. "Okay, head down." She pointed back at Godzilla and then with her arms down. He followed her, surprisingly this went smoothly, his head deep enough for Madison and Aaron to climb up. His snout touched only gently the tops of the wall. Carefully and not to slip, the two climbed up on his head, down to his neck. There they found a good foothold between the plates on his neck.

"Here we go." Said Madison, Godzilla slowly rose and the two were lifted several feet into the air. The wind was much stronger up above.

Godzilla looked down at the village and let out a roar, it was his farewell from here. Slowly he turned around, in the direction where the sun had set. He knew instinctively where they were taking her. His ancestors had already made them there.

Madison looked behind him, the village wrapped in a soft orange by the slowly steadily setting sun. She looked down, could see Ato and Ikimi on the wall, like the rest of the assembled village. She did not wave or call out to them. She just nodded gently and whispered something again.

Godzilla turned his head slightly to one side, covering part of the sun, but she shone through as he gave one last roar.

**"Skreeeoongh!"**


	11. History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Madison travels with Aaron and Godzilla, she tells him the history of her live, and the humans that lived with her.

**Chapter 11: History**

Maddie lay down on Godzilla's neck as if she were hugging a very old tree. She listened to his last growl, felt his feet stomping on the floor. It was reminding her back to the first few days here where they were, where she was almost happy to have met Godzilla. Now she wanted to get back to a certain normality. Behind her she heard a slight curse. She looked back with a slight smile.

It was Aaron who leaned against the first of Godzilla's back plates and felt as if he was about to rush off, but it was relatively safe if Godzilla wasn't in great motion like a fight, the skin was covered with rough scales, similar to a shark, an adaptation to the water, you could almost not slip off and mostly got stuck on the scales.

Nevertheless, Aaron had taken a small safety precaution. From his bag he took a rope that he had taken with him for all falls, along with a climbing hook that he had always used whenever they had to leave the village and climb up the mountains.

"Do you think the big one will feel it?" Aaron asked them, "I don't know, but watch where you put it. Better not poke it in the skin." "Why, is he going to get mad at me?" Aaron joked. "He may not, but I will." Madison said. Aaron raised his eyebrow in confusion, Madison rolled her eyes and lay back down on Godzilla's neck. "Try to throw the heel open in the crack between the back plate." Aaron looked down at the rope, shrugged his shoulder and tried his luck. He turned around and threw the hook backwards, aimed as well as he could in the direction of the plate, landed close to the edge of the backplate, slowly pulled it back up and slowly hooked into the plate. Godzilla didn't seem to make any noise and so Madison didn't seem to notice anything. He tied the rope around his waist and made a tight knot in it, praying that he wouldn't slip off.

He didn't really know how long they would take, Godzilla didn't move very fast and walked relatively slowly, but his stride was a little bit too slow to compensate, the trip would still take a while if the temple was on the other side of the island. Despite all the years he had been here, he had never ventured far from the village and only used the known and established routes. It made him nervous, he couldn't even know if there were new strange creatures there or if there was no danger at all, although he saw this as a rather naive view of himself. On Skull Island pretty much everything was dangerous, almost every animal here was adapted to be perfect for hunting or to have the perfect defense, even the plants here. There were some trees or plants that were covered with highly toxic spines.

So what was waiting on the other side worried him.

He tried to distract himself and thought of other things, which rekindled his curiosity. He still knew little about Madison, now would be a good time to confront her. She was still lying on her stomach with her arms around his neck.

"Madison?" He cried out loudly to avoid being overpowered by Godzilla. She woke up, apparently almost asleep. She turned to him and crossed her legs, well balanced.

"Yes what is it?" "I wanted to ask you something." He hesitated a little. She looked at him. "Come on, what do you want to know?" "Who are you?" Madison blinked in surprise and didn't really know the answer to the question. "What do you mean, who are you?"

"I hardly know anything about you, where exactly did you come from, how did you get here." "I come from Boston and was taken here by Godzilla." "No no." He shook his head, "How did you get here, what are you doing where you are or why are you here?"

She sighed and nodded her head slightly. "All right, so you want to know everything, the whole story?" "Well, we have a little time." Madison put a small smile on her face and worked through the whole thing again, took a deep breath and went back to the beginning.

"You know the story of Monarch's founding in 1945? How an American nuclear submarine first touched the deep sea and Godzilla awoke?" Aaron nodded in agreement.

"Well then, I'll skip ahead to 2014, because Godzilla was bombed in 1954, and then he disappeared into a short hibernation. But then he woke up again, in 2014, after one of the two Mutos hatched."

"Which Mutos were they, it is a code name for massive unknowns-"  
"Terrestrial organisms, exactly. We do not have a real name for the species yet. They are insect-like mammals that fought Godzilla. They are natural enemies and Godzilla was hunting them. This led them to San Francisco, where I and my family were living at the time."

Madison paused briefly to take a deep breath. "Are you all right?" "I'm fine." "Do you want to continue?" He asked. Madison nodded.

"I was quite small; we had just celebrated my brother's birthday. We couldn't get out of town in time before the bridge collapsed. We were trapped in a mousetrap, with monsters that wouldn't even pay attention or give us a comment. When it was over, we were separated from my brother, we had lost him, forever." She looked to the side, at the mountains they were passing through, smaller rocks fell from them and rolled down until they hit the ground.

"Anyway, our family was torn apart. We all had certain problems. Actually, my mother had raised me less than the environment of Monarch and Serizawa, who was my godfather." "The things you hear about being cut off after so long." Aaron joked a little to lift the spirits a little.

"Well, what about your family at that time?" "Like I said, we were torn apart, my father started to become a terrible drunk, my mother couldn't stand it, that they fought a lot. The whole thing weighed on her emotionally, too much. Her emotions have become less in the last few years, her attitude towards everyone has become cold and she tries to distance herself from Dad, she was convinced that he was the bad guy in the story."

"It's never that simple, just like Godzilla is not the bad guy because your brother died trying to fight those parasites." Madison agreed with Aaron, nodding.

"She went crazy, not in a way you'd notice, she was completely closed off from the outside world in her thoughts. That she had helped defeat Muto Prime, the second monster to awaken shortly thereafter, and helping Godzilla out of trouble in some way did not make it any better, as she was hailed as a hero."

"How had she helped? We had Monarch defensive weapons on the way here at the time, but they won't be able to take on 100-meter monsters." "No, you're right." Madison laughed. "It was the prototype for a device that my mom and dad had named the Orca. It was designed to protect whales from being beached on the shore. A side effect was that it could also communicate with the Titans. This allowed her to distract Muto Prime long enough and Godzilla won the victory." Madison took a deep breath, ran her hands through her hair once and shook her head briefly.

"Then what happened over the next few years?"

"Actually, it got a little quieter than we thought, but we found more monsters, 17 and counting. Well, that gave my mom time to prepare me and herself for her *plan* with Jonah."

"What was that plan?" He asked. Madison sighed again, knowing this part was coming, but she felt the strength to tell herself these things again.

"To awaken all Titans to restore a natural balance, to preserve the world through the destruction of man, so that life will continue to exist. But not everything went as planned, nor was the plan a good idea to start with. It was naive, not thought out and exploited by a man who firmly believed this crazy idea."

"So you woke up all the Titans?" "Not really, the idea was to slowly wake everyone one by one, but we woke the wrong Titan first." "What was this 'Wrong' Titan?"

"We called him Monster Zero. His name was Ghidorah. The closest, if not the inspiration of the devil for mankind. Trapped in the ice of Antarctica, and we woke up. Godzilla started chasing after him, but we humans only made things worse because we didn't have the control over these things."

Aaron crossed his arms and nodded in agreement. "That had never really changed with Monarch and the organization that worked with them, but we want control over these things, but we can't. I mean that's how I ended up here, I wanted us to control this island more tightly because I didn't trust Kong enough to keep the Skullcrawlers and other animals apart."

Madison sat back for a moment and stretched out her arms. "Some things never change." Meanwhile, Godzilla began climbing a small mountain, slowly, one step at a time.

"So what happened to the plan?" Madison looked just behind him and watched Godzilla's movements and held on tight to his scales, then she replied.

"Well, Ghidorah had fought Godzilla, the two were underwater, and Godzilla seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but then the news came that the military wanted to intervene and detonated a bomb, at least as glorious as an atomic bomb, if not much worse. The Oxygen Destroyer, as she called him, managed to kill Godzilla, but not Ghidorah. He is not of this world, he contradicted everything that existed in the world."

"An alien." "Bingo, crashed on Earth millions of years ago, the king of terror. Since then he terrorized life on earth to gain the upper hand, but Godzillas and other Titans before him fought against him. But this time he had won and began to take control of the other Titans. He was the new Alpha and brought all the Titans of this world to awaken and wipe out the humans and this planet."

"So the Skullcrawlers woke up because of him?" "Most likely."

"And what happened here on the island... happened all over the world?" Madison nodded in shame. "Yes. Many cities and towns were attacked. It wasn't what we had planned, the Titans were supposed to repair the Earth, you know, rebalance nature and stuff. But they had done the opposite and destroyed everything in their path, erasing whole strips of land until only a pile of rubble and charred ashes remained."

"And if Godzilla was dead, why didn't it stay that way? Who would stand against these Titans and Ghidorah?"

Madison paused to think, she had already said too much to stop now.

"We, or at least some of us, stepped in and stood up to these things with what we could. I decided against my mother, no matter what. It became too dangerous for me to be in the bunker with Jonah and his henchmen, it wouldn't take long and we would probably be a burden to them."

"Jonah, you mentioned that name a lot, who is this guy?" "An asshole, I'll tell you that." Escaped Madison, Aaron seemed surprised by her sudden change of pitch.

"You don't seem to like this guy." "He's the only person I wish dead because he has other lives on his conscience but feels no remorse for it, despite his mistakes as an eco-terrorist, in the name of the environment. He took advantage of my mother and manipulated her and therefore me. If it wasn't for him, these things would never have happened."

"Okay, so you stood up to your mother and an eco-terrorist who used her as a marionette with his henchmen? This is getting complicated."

"I should elaborate on this. We were in Boston at the time, one of the Monarch bunkers built for such events. That was his base from where he was observing and controlling everything. By a lucky coincidence, I overheard him and my mother talking about how she suggested he lure Ghidorah to Boston at the stadium. But she would never have done it, I knew that. So I decided to take responsibility for the things I regret and pay for them, no matter what the cost."

"Kind of like how I helped the Iwis?" "Exactly... me... I'm... sorry, I'm gonna need a minute." "Take your time. This must be really stressing you out." Aaron didn't really know what else to say, he wasn't sure if he was too insensitive, he hadn't had any experience with it for a long time.

Madison rubbed her hands across her face and briefly turned her neck, it felt very tense. She felt a slight cracking sound coming and felt much better. All of a sudden it went down a bit, Godzilla slowly stomped down the mountain again.

Madison exhaled, continued and approached her fears head-on.

"I stole the Orca and crept through the building, that was running smoothly, so it was the same after a few hours with the stadium, I just walked past everyone while they were too busy to evacuate. I waited and then broke into the Red Socks recording studio. It would take a few minutes for the speakers to record the sound around the world from the Titans but then it worked and the attacks stopped. But now I was faced with another problem, which was that Ghidorah was chasing me."

"That Ghidorah, that was the three-headed dragon, was it?" Madison nodded. "Exactly. And it was after me now, a 521 ft. thousands year old dragon with three personalities chased after me the rebellious Teenage Girl. Aaron smiled a little. "When you say it out loud it sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster." Madison laughed a little, but continued with her story.

"At the same time they were looking for Godzilla after Mothra showed them the way. My father, Serizawa and her colleagues Chen and Rick were on a deep sea submarine on its way to the underworld, the hollow earth." "So the old man was right after all." Aaron said as he scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Yeah. They were all right. The reason your father made the first expedition here was real. There was a lost civilization underneath. I always joke that it's Atlantis. It's probably something else entirely. These humans had successfully lived together with the Titans and benefited from each other, it was his last retreat where he regenerated. However, this probably took years. But the world needed him now."

She paused to think of Serizawa, her godfather, who had practically raised her. "What...What did they do?" "Well...they had to fire a nuclear device at Godzilla. But the submarine could not fire it after getting scratched. So someone had to fire it manually. That someone was Serizawa."

Aaron's eyes were a little shocked. He never thought he would ever hear about who had died and who was alive. But hearing Serizawa's death hit him like a hammer, he was a very smart man, the Monarch just started running the place when he was there in '95.

"I know how you probably feel." Maddie said. "I still feel terrible about it. When my family split up, he was practically the one who was there for me the most. He was my Godfather, except he was like my father to me. To experience his death only after all this had happened felt like my neck had been broken."

She held back her tears and snorted a little. "At least he saved the world... and me somehow."

"How?" Aaron her directly, a little thrown off track by this message.

"Well, Godzilla was now also on his way to Boston. I was waiting, not quite sure what I was doing there, either brave enough or stupid enough." "Which is why?"

Madison embarrassedly grabbed the back of his neck, and below Godzilla's feet you could just hear water stomping, a swamp or something.

"Well, Ghidorah was there, there in Boston, I just saw this cloud coming towards me in the beginning and I ran back inside the studio thinking I was safe. But before I knew it, I was in the eye of a hurricane caused by the Titan. Right in front of me he landed on the stadium, destroyed the equipment to end the signal. I fasted a decision and pulled the plug, but that wouldn't shut down the Orca."

She felt it running cold across her back again, this fear of the memory. But she pulled through, shook herself and continued.

"He... he looked at me. This yellow eye started to hate me when I held the Orca in my hand and the signal continued. He must have thought that I was the one giving it away, now he was going to end it. I saw his neck fill with yellow flashes, despite my position I tried and ran, and he just missed me by a little. As I ran through the hallway, when the proverbial devil came after me, more and more lightning struck through the walls. In front of me was the staircase, I jumped down and for a brief moment he lost me, but he began to lay all the buildings around him in ruins.

Madison began to tremble a little, but she continued to fight her fear. Aaron was fascinated by the story and excited, so detailed, he slowly realized what kind of girl she was.

"I ran down the stairs, a stone hit me on the head, but my body had just enough adrenaline pumped into it as never before, so I didn't feel it. I ran down onto the field, disoriented in the rain, inwardly I slowly began to conclude that this was it, after all I had delayed the destruction of the earth for a few hours. Then an explosion hit me from behind and threw me across the field. When my body bounced, at first I only heard a short buzzing sound, everything sounded so muffled. I continued to fight anyway, sat up and saw this damn thing, which had ruined my family, and the dragon's left head in the corner of my eye. Go to hell I thought, grabbed the thing and threw it over to Ghidorah. He stomped on it, which didn't completely destroy it, as we found out. I heard the thunderous roar, which practically meant death. I was ready to face him, it was too late at that point anyway. I got up and looked at him, the rain fell on my face, my vision was blurred, but still I could see the three necks building up in front of me and the lightning sliding along again. As the lightning climbed up Ghidorah's neck, all I could hear was the sound of thunder. I didn't know what my last words should be, so I just yelled at him so he knew I wasn't giving up. I would have been dead, crumbling to dust like other people before me. But... God... Godzilla he..."

Madison looked down at the scaly skin of the one creature she owed her life to. The tears broke through her, she squeezed her eyes together and let the tears out, from her face they landed on Godzilla's surface. What neither Aaron nor Madison knew, Godzilla noticed. His footsteps slowed a little, he looked up with his eyes, and heard Madison sobbing. He left a soft humming sound that went through his whole body like a purring cat.

The two upstairs felt it. Aaron looked around in a little panic, thinking something had happened. While Aaron was distracted, Madison started smiling again. She wiped the tears from her face and gently stroked Godzilla over her skin, her eyes still pointing down. Even though not a word was said between them, she could understand.

"Don't be sad Madison."

She looked up, Aaron put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Madison, you don't have to be sad. You're one of the bravest, strongest people I've ever seen, I really mean that." He took his hand away, Madison felt better, she wiped the remaining tears from her face. "And you mean that in all seriousness?"

"Sure I do. Think about how many people your age would have been able to keep this up, even some adults can't, as I've seen for myself. I understand the pressure it all had to put on you, but now you've landed here and you haven't stopped going on, staying sane, no, not only that. You have something that not everyone can do, the courage to stand up for others, innocent lives. Your mother had made mistakes and you have, you felt responsible for them and kicked against her to protect innocent people, even if maybe it was not all your fault. Whatever we are on this journey or those that lie ahead, I'm sure you've grown for it."

Madison smiled, it was a true smile, these words encouraged her and brought her back up.

"Thank you, Aaron." "No, I-" Madison hugged him, surprisingly for Aaron. It took him a minute to adjust. He tapped her gently on the shoulder.

"I never had a daughter, but if you were mine, I would be very proud of you right now." He said. "Thank you." Aaron shook his head. "No, thank you, because people like you always give me a little hope in this world."

She let go of him and sat back down. "We'll be on the road a little while longer, I guess... how about you get some more rest?" He asked.

But there should be no rest right now.

Godzillas didn't move anymore but a loud growl came from him, he was aggressive. From underneath, a stench poked up into their nose, it smelled like rotten eggs and meat.

"Puhh, what the hell is that?" Madison said. Aaron looked to the side, his eyes widened. "I think the next best thing." Madison raised his eyebrow, slightly nervously looking down.

It was a cloud of greenish-yellowish gas that was several feet above the ground and stretched for several hundred feet. Below she could only make out certain outlines, including boulders and, bones.

"Is that..." "The bone field where the skull crawlers hold their meals, exactly." He looked frantically left and right all the time, down on his string so it wouldn't break. He had his weapon firmly in his grip now, even though he knew it couldn't do much against a Skullcrawler. Gunshots in the eyes kept them well away.

"As long as we're up here, we should be safe." Madison said. "I think so too, but I'm still a little nervous. I've only been here once and I've never looked back."

Then she heard a slimy roar nearby. All three of them immediately looked in that direction. It was quiet on the other side, only the panting of Godzilla could still be heard. He was now king over this island, but the Skull Crawlers were very primitive in their instincts, especially the younger ones would not hold back.

He slowly took a few steps forward, going deeper into the field. The stench got worse, but Aaron and Madison were still a good distance above the cloud. Then they heard the roar once more, Godzilla stopped.

Madison looked down. She saw movement below, directly toward them. "Down there!" She yelled out, Godzilla heard it and immediately noticed the shadow that crept through the fog, with a powerful thrust, turning his tail sideways and striking the target, sending it several hundred feet through the air. For a short time the stall of the Skull Crawler emerged from the cloud, but then it dived in again, the impact was well audible.

The next sound was made by Madison. It was Godzilla growling slightly, something had made him very angry again. He looked down at his leg and started shaking. "Aaron, what's there?" Madison said as she tried to hang on. When he looked down, he immediately fired a few shots instead of answering. Madison leaned over on his side.

A Skullcrawler, around which Godzilla's leg tried to climb up 10 meters. It had anchored itself firmly into his skin with its claws. Aaron kept firing and actually managed to land a good hit, the skull crawler screamed up and lost its grip on one leg.

Godzilla stamped his leg on the ground, which catapulted him to the ground. He took no chances. He lifted his leg again and stepped on the skull crawler, the last thing you heard was a smacking and cracking sound. Madison got light goose bumps.

Godzilla roared loudly through the field, so loud that it stirred up part of the fog. He took a few steps forward and positioned himself approximately in the middle.

"What are you gonna do?" Madison asked, the answer she heard only seconds later. A loud buzzing sound came at her from below, it was getting warmer beneath them. Aaron looked behind him, he saw a blue light slowly climbing up out of the fog onto her.

"Hold on!" he shouted. Madison turned to him and saw Godzilla's atomic breath continue to charge, it now reaches almost to his neck. The heat became great enough that she reached away with her hands, but her clothes helped her to sit. The blue light had now reached her, it glowed through several spots on his body. She narrowed her eyes and hoped for the best and listened to the sounds below.

Godzilla unleashed his atomic breath to the ground beneath them and started a chain reaction when the gas mixed with the heat of the breath, it exploded, you could hear it through the valley like one explosion after another, turning slowly away from the explosions and unleashing it again. Madison saw a slight blue shimmer in front of him that the explosion and flames had been colored blue by the mixing with Godzilla radioactive breath. The heat it generated was bearable, but now she could well imagine how the other Titans felt when exposed to this heat.

Slowly Godzilla stopped, he still had to conserve some of his energy in case a fight broke out. He went on as if nothing had happened.


	12. Angels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They arrived finally on the temple were ones other generations of Mothras were born and were people like her gained their powers. But as she is about to finally claim it, an angel of death, her last challenge on this path, wants to get the power as well. And at the end of this, there will be only one of them standing.

**Chapter 12: Angels**

"Madison wake up, we're here." Aaron called to her, she had been completely asleep, it was already dark. Madison rubbed her eyes and yawned slightly, she had slept so nicely. Not a bad dream, just a gentle nap, now and then a little disturbed by the sounds of Godzilla walking, she was already used to it.

She looked around a little, the light had almost disappeared, the sky was full of stars again. When she looked before her, she blinked twice. She saw a temple, it was 100% the temple that was spoken of, because it looked exactly like the one in China Outpost 61, where Mothra hatched. It was like a pyramid, but it seemed to be right in front of a mountain cliff and was already more damaged by weather or elements, as well as creatures. A hole, about 10 meters high, was where the entrance actually was. It led directly into the heart of the temple, the destination she had.

"You know what you have to do?" Asked Aaron Madison in a nervous voice. "M-Maybe?" Aaron snapped back to her, his mood slightly irritated. "What do you mean, maybe, they discussed it with you?" "Y-yeah. I'm sorry this whole thing is a little much." He nodded and turned back towards the temple. "Sorry, like you said, we're just a little tense. All right, let's go downstairs." He grabbed his gun and took off his rope again.

Madison looked down at Godzilla and reached forward to his neck. "Take us down." She whispered. Slowly, Godzilla rumbled and bowed his head down to the temple. "All right Aaron, hold on." He felt himself being pulled down by gravity, grabbing Godzilla's back plate as hard as he could.

About 6 meters above the ground Godzilla held his head. Madison jumped down first and made a good landing, Aaron fixed his gun to his side and secured it again to avoid blind fire. He slid down Godzilla's neck and landed safely on the ground.

"That was something." Aaron looked behind him where Godzilla stood up again and sniffed the air. He let out a slight growl and turned his back to the two of them. "What is he doing?" Aaron asked confusedly. "I think he's keeping awake...we'd better hurry, whatever excited him in the morning might be close."

Aaron nodded, the faster they were out of here, the better it actually was. The two of them slowly went into the big hole, it was as if something wanted to get in, maybe it was a skull crawler looking for food and something in the temple, but the size of this crawler gave some thought to the size of the hole. There were no plants growing over the spots yet, so it must have happened recently. Madison was silent about this, though, not wanting to make Aaron more worried, stressed or angry than he already was.

After a few meters they had reached a long staircase that went a few meters to the center. In the middle of the temple that Madison in China saw was Mothras egg, probably laid thousands of years ago, but there was no egg.

There was a circle, with some symbols on it, through the darkness she couldn't see exactly what they meant, but something in her pulled her there, as if she already knew it all. Slowly she walked down the stairs, she didn't look stable anymore, but Aaron followed her wherever she went, relying on him to watch out.

When she stepped on a staircase and suddenly made a cracking sound, she flinched briefly. But that was not the stairs that had cracked. Looking at the ground, she only saw something that was roughly in the shape of a branch, she took a short breath and turned to Aaron, who stood behind her expectantly.

"What was that?" "Just a twig, you got a flashlight?" He nodded, "This is the last one I had left, I've been saving it for important moments" and took it out of his backpack and shone in front of them. Madison went back down faster now that she could see everything clearly in front of her. She was now in a circle, he had a circumference of about 20 meters or more. All the symbols carved on lines looked ancient before any language Madison probably knew, probably the same as her father had seen.

She saw the lines that were in the circle, something seemed to be known about them. "Aaron, take three steps up the stairs and shine down on the circle, I want to check something out." He followed her instructions and walked carefully up the stairs. He shone down on the circle and raised his eyebrow in confusion over what he saw.

A symbol was on it. Madison recognized it immediately, it was the same as the amulet Ikimi had given her, so it was confirmed, this was her arrival point. "We are right Aaron, this is the place we were supposed to go. Shine a little more, I...I think I see something..."

She saw a bruise in the middle, something pulled her there, she walked towards it and realized that it was a bump in the ground, when she knelt down she wiped gently over it, it was a blue ball or something like that.

As Aaron watched her uncover this blue object, he heard something on his left side, he looked over, it was too dark in the shadow, but he swears he heard something crawling. He looked behind him at Godzilla, who was pacing up and down like a man waiting for his wife to come out of the hospital room. All the while he growled or let out a rumble.

Madison had meanwhile cleared this blue hemisphere of dust, it looked like a lapis lazuli stone, but with a lighter blue tone. She reached for it, it felt strange, something pulsed underneath, warmth came down from it, but it was a glassy smooth surface much softer and smoother than any glass or jewelry Madison had ever touched before.

She stroked it with her hands and leaned on it once with her body weight, not sure why, but it actually did something. At first she only heard a click, like from a machine, immediately she jumped away from it and looked around in panic. But then all of a sudden the lines began to glow in a light blue light, like water flowing through them, the light illuminated the surroundings until a crystal-like stone at the end of each ray lit up, bathing the whole room in a bright turquoise blue.

"Wow..." Amazed Aaron not bad. Madison turned around, she was in the middle of this room, once she turned in a circle, amazed by what she saw. It was similar to the crystals in the hell of the first night here, beautiful memories came up to her. She looked up, there was a hole at the top of the temple, it was the same size as the circle she was in, she saw the stars, the sky was so clear again, the last time she had seen a sky like this she was very small and once she had taken a trip to Japan with Serizawa, out to the country. It was only with this trip that she realized how close the two of them were, because a few months before the events that would cost him his life, Emma Madison had cut off contact with him, they had not seen or spoken to each other, they had only thought that no one should know her plan.

Godzilla had long noticed the blue glow, it attracted him automatically, it reminded him of his ally, Mothra. He knew that a new ally would be born today, all his instincts told him to protect her from all that was to come.

Madison looked around, she was very sure that it was not over like everything else so far. She was fascinated by the temple, it seemed to be even older than the one in China, the drawings on the walls indicated that this temple served several generations of Mothras and their successors, who knows if anyone was standing in the same place as she is now and going through something similar. The crystals attracted her further attention, when they lit up she hadn't noticed it at all, but the pulsation seemed to be in them too. She walked towards one, it was about 2 meters high or, so pointedly tapering, and the natural color seemed to be like a white quartz. It was quite unchanged in shape, which led them to believe that these crystals were simply taken, most likely from the cave where the bees had their nest. It seemed that they were storing energy, maybe that is why they had built their nest there, to better supply their swarm.

She went down to the bottom of the crystal, when she touched her hand with it, she noticed how smooth it actually was, like the ball it emitted a pulse, like a certain heat. At the bottom it was actually slightly polished, probably to give a firmer grip. It stood directly on one of the lights and glided along the surface, also of the same consistency as the crystal.

But something cold landed on her hand, she flinched immediately and squeaked up. Aaron turned to her and was almost startled, but squeezed up to stop making any more noise. "M-Madison..." She looked over at him with her eyes as she inspected what she had just hit, it was a viscous liquid substance that pulled the strings as she removed her hand. It had a rotten smell, almost like rotting flesh.

It dripped again from above, slowly she looked up. Something jumped at her, she just jumped to the side and rolled over the ground, the creature's wind caught her. There had been a high-pitched screeching as it attacked. Madison quickly jumped back to her feet and was now facing the creature.

It had poison green compound eyes, insect-like jaws and light armour. Long, narrow legs, whereby the front pair of legs developed into strong pincers, reminded strongly of a scorpion. It was about one and a half meters high, and could stare directly into Madison's eyes. It had a reptile-like iris, which just pointed directly at Madison.

It squealed around and roared at them. Maddie took a defensive position, aiming for the neck and head, it seemed fragile enough to take a good hit with the leg. Behind her, she heard Godzilla growling softly, but he couldn't do anything without destroying the temple and putting her in even more danger.

But behind her, she heard Aaron unlocked his gun and aimed at these huge bugs. "Maddie step aside." She jumped to the side, just as the creature was about to jump forward onto her again. Aaron shot her, aimed for the head like almost everyone else, and fired through. Green blood gushed out and it slammed to the ground, its neck, head and abdomen pierced like Swiss cheese.

Maddie took a deep breath and cursed briefly under her breath, she had been in a situation like this too many times before. "Are you okay?" Asked Aaron as he walked down the stairs to her. "Well, wish I wasn't in situations like this anymore." He nodded okay. The two of them walked toward the creature's body, Madison knelt down. The green blood oozed from the wounds, it was very viscous. The sight and smell were repulsive. "Perhaps these from the bone field followed us here." "I don't think so." Madison said. She touched the head.

Something spoke to her, a whispering female voice followed by many other voices talking about each other. But one word stood out, "Meganulon." Madison said it, Aaron looked down at her, she put her hand away from the creature. "It's Meganulon..." "How do you know... Maddie... your eyes. They glow blue."

Maddie stood up and blinked a few times, she couldn't see it. She shook her head in panic. "Wait, wait." Aaron grabbed her shoulder, turned the flashlight off, and laid the glass surface down in front of Maddie. She saw it, she saw her brown eyes now glowing in a bright blue. She saw how slowly but steadily the light flowed into the tears in her eyes.

"I think it's starting... I'm changing Aaron." She grabbed her head, it was another headache. They got worse by the second. Slowly she walked back towards the center of the room towards the blue hemisphere, a meter away she collapsed and fell to the floor and started shaking. "Madison!" cried Aaron and ran to her. He checked her pulse, it was fine, but immediately he noticed Madison's body temperature had risen, she was in a kind of fever. "Come on, we gotta get you out of here." "No, I have to stay here." She said, "Are you crazy? Get up. It's not worth it." He pulled her up, she was a little wobbly on two legs.

Godzilla let out a gentle roar of himself, he saw what was going on down there. There was nothing he could do but watch Maddie strain to stay on her feet.

"Aaron, I think this is it, I have to stay here, put this...circle..." She continued to tremble, she could stand, but the headache was now like someone cracking her skull with a knife. "Stay here...please, you have to take care of me...I have to get through it."

Madison thought of everything that could explain this thing, she looked around, the symbols on the walls, there had to be an answer to help her. Slowly she began to doubt herself whether she was the right one. Was she the one to help unite humans and Titans, or just a girl who tried to justify what her elders did, to pay a debt for something she could have prevented?

But these questions in her head were interrupted by a single, blood freezing scream, demonic scream, as high as anything she had ever heard in her life, so filled with hatred and violence.

Aaron also closed his ears and Godzilla shook briefly and pulled his head out of the temple entrance and turned his gaze to the sky to send a reply. He stamped the ground and with a deep breath entering, he let out a roar loud enough to make the earth around him tremble. He directed himself upwards again, even after he had stopped, holding the roar through the air over the island and it became very quiet shortly after.

But Madison had already taken hold of her senses again, Godzilla "voice" had given her some strength, but at the same time she fell back into fear, because now one of them appeared, the shadow that wants to take what is meant for her to take revenge on the world, on what has been done.

From the dark clouds of the night came a figure, first it was a tail, with red dots on the body overlooked, a sting as from a scorpion at the end, slowly the rest showed, the chest had insects legs with pointed ends, two very long wings the game on and teeing off and finally it showed itself now in full shape. The red-faced eyes on the dragon-like head, where there was a mouth with several pointed teeth. The body had an exoskeleton, covered with spiky devices, the front legs were transformed into pincers, like the meganulon.

The whispering in Madison's head reappeared. It was she who spoke to her and put these doubts in her, several thousand voices speaking at once, but once again only one name came out clearly. Madison pronounced it and it felt like her heart stopped.

"Megaguirus."

The Titan of plagues, the counterpart of Mothra. The darkness to the light, which lay in an eternal fight. But now that Mothra had disappeared and she was awake, she had to take this opportunity before someone else caught her.

Godzilla opposed her, he didn't give her mercy like other Titans who had joined Ghidorah, he knew what she had done and would not let her become more powerful. He turned to her with his left side to shield the temple and show his greatness and superiority. But this only motivated Megaguirus even more. A wicked grin came over the hellish creature and once again it let out a malicious hateful scream.

Godzilla responded by yelling at her, not stopping him at that moment, but Megaguirus knew that. With the blink of an eye she flew to the side, not even a camera could have recorded it. Godzilla slowed down and looked to his right. As soon as his head was even slightly turned, Megaguirus had already given him a blow with the scissors that made him tilt to the side. He shook his head and regained his balance, lifting his feet into the ground beneath him.

Another powerful strike came from the left, and only two seconds later another one, and then another one. Megaguirus flew so fast it was just a consumed stall in the air, flying back and forth and punching Godzilla in the face.

After a few strokes, Godzilla had already learned his lesson and with his arm he swung out and actually managed to slow down Megaguirus in her movements. He grabbed her by the tail at the top, but only a second later the two pincers slid around his neck.

The tongs clamped tightly around Godzilla's neck and choked her, not quite cutting off the air, but hardly letting any in.

He stabbed her torax with his claws and tried to tear her away from him. In response, Megaguirus snapped at Godzilla's neck and took a bite out of him, putting the forceps down on her shoulders and lifting her arms away from her body. As they clawed their way out of the body, poison seeped green blood from the wounds again. With strong flaps of her wings, she braced herself against Godzilla, who tried to land a hit and slipped with her left shoulder out of Megaguirus's grasp, but Megaguirus grabbed his lower arm again and did the same with her right arm. The wings started beating faster and faster, creating more and more resistance and power, slowly pushing Godzilla's legs out of their moorings, and despite the fragile appearance, Megaguirus was able to finish the almost 100th flight.00 ton Godzilla 10 meters above the ground, when Godzilla's tail was dragged over the ground and he tried to fight back, he was thrown with full force against the mountain, back first, and roared with pain as the back plates pressed against his spine.

"No!" Madison screamed, but there was nothing she could do, she and Aaron were having other problems. Before them was a war, behind them was the plague. There was an unpleasant noise in their ears, tickling in their ears, a cold breath of danger covering them, making them shiver and giving them goose bumps. Something was crawling around behind them, but it was not just one, there were many. The two turned around and were greeted by a frightening sight.

Dozens of meganulons were crawling around on the walls and floors, climbing over each other, clinging to the stone, they had discovered them and were walking towards them. They were under the control of the Megaguirus, they were their children who helped to carry out their revenge.

Aaron and Madison were standing there, everyone wondering the same thing, run away or fight. Madison looked behind her like her partner, one who had always protected her from the dangers here, putting his life at risk when he actually took a severe beating. She couldn't leave him behind or just give up, she would stand here and finish the ritual. The longer she stayed in the temple, the stronger she could become.

She took a defensive pose, looked to the side where the carcass of the first meganulon was still, grabbed one of the forceps and cracked it off while the dozens of others approached. They were still young and inexperienced, awaiting their mother's orders to attack, especially after one of their own had fallen.

"Fight or run?" Aaron said softly. He knew what she would choose, those critters would catch up with her without any problem, he got ready and aimed his rifle at the crowd. "I've run away long enough." She said, and he got ready, too. She held the tongs ending up like swords in her hand, she had never fought with such weapons before, but the experience should be enough, her will was stronger.

Behind him, Megaguirus had thrown Godzilla against the mountain again, he had thrown a lot on his knees. Early on she ignored her rival and made her way to the temple, hearing the voices of her children calling out for her, the one that would prevent her from getting her revenge.

A heavy weight stopped it and slammed it down onto the floor. Godzilla had catapulted herself forward and grabbed her by the tail. The force with which she struck rammed one of her teeth from the lower jaw into the upper jaw, the sudden and unprepared pain made her cry out. The Meganulons heard the scream of their queen and finally struck, their screams wildly confused, pushing them towards Aaron and Madison. They crawled toward them from all sides, from the ceilings and walls and floor. Aaron opened fire on them and aimed at the top of their heads, ammunition was scarce, he had to save it, every shot counted for two magazines.

A Meganulon jumped off the wall to Madison's right, she swerved and took a step back to gain distance, it snapped forward now about a foot away from her. Madison stabbed the meganulon's head with her right hand pliers, immediately penetrating the upper half and piercing the monster's exoskeleton. As she pulled out her converted daggers, green blood sprayed onto the floor as the body slammed to the ground. Aaron continued shooting, there was already a body stacked in front of them, but it was still easy to attack from the right and left, she had to cover him from the sides.

A Meganulon raced toward them from the left flank, Madison heard the roar in front of him and ran back to him. With a powerful leap she took her right leg out, missed the monster a powerful kick in the face, so that the big Faceten eye burst open, when the insect fell to the side with an aching scream, stung Madison in the neck and pulled him back along the head and out through the mouth.

Aaron had emptied his first magazine and had to reload quickly, but under the pressure and stress he made a mistake once and two of the Meganulons came too close. He hit the animal's head with the lower end of the rifle, again and again and again. The second one tried to attack from the side, but Madison jumped at him with his feet and kicked him so hard that he rolled over on his back. Madison swung out with her two pincer daggers and stabbed deep into the monster's head and chest.

Aaron looked down at her and noticed how she had changed more, she had never been so furious and suddenly seemed stronger than she was before. In her mind she was just thinking about surviving, but never before in this way, never before had she been so violent about something, even when she was angry, never had she thought she had to kill herself.

He saw the blue glow slowly descending on a vein in her throat, it actually changed into another being.

In the moment of carelessness a Meganulon threw itself on Madison. It was her ground and piled up over Madison, snapping at her in the direction of her head, the powerful mouthpiece just missed Madison as she turned her head to the side. The monster's head had gotten stuck with the tongs on a crack in the floor and was frantically trying to free itself. Madison watched as her legs danced wildly back and forth around her. "Watch out!" Aaron yelled and aimed for the head of Meganulon, Madison slid further down to avoid being hit herself. He fired two shots, then the animal was already dead to the ground. Madison almost squeezed it under the insect, but she pushed it aside, the skin was disgustingly slippery when she touched it, the body still had a certain pulsing warmth.

Aaron wanted to open fire on those in front of them again, but now a Meganulon attacked him directly from the right side. Madison saw it and threw one of her pincers at the animal, it flew just past Aaron and penetrated the monster's head. Aaron nodded over to her and fired again at those in front of them, but now more and more came behind. They continued to defend their position, but for how long was uncertain as they were pushed further out.

Godzilla in the meantime had a fierce fight with Megaguirus, it was hard for both of them, they were in great pain. Megaguirus had already taken some scratches, and Godzilla had taken some stabs and slits from the claws, like a bite on the neck.

He puffed and gurgled deeply, his eyes fixed on them, his thoughts full of rage, every muscle was driven by aggression and hatred. He gritted his teeth and roared at his opponent, she was not impressed and aimed for a new attack from above. With a lightning-fast maneuver it flew towards Godzilla, shot a few meters above his head into the sky of Enoch, the wings fluttering with thousands of beats per second. For a moment it paused in the air and let itself fall down and aimed at Godzilla, the wind whipped through its wings, slowly pulling it out with its pincers. Down on the ground she only saw Godzilla shaking after the last attack, his orientation was lost, he saw the blue light in the temple in front of him and headed for it, the sounds coming from him meant that his partner was in danger.

Suddenly he felt a massive pain in the back of his head, followed by a deep cut past his cheek. Angrily he roared and snapped forward. Megaguirus had given him a severe blow as she built up in front of him and he staggered back and forth until he finally fell to the ground. The shock could be felt throughout the area, the cloud of debris and dust flying several meters into the air. Now assured of her victory, Megaguirus turned away from her former rivals and was about to complete her task and take over. Slowly she flew over the ground, taking a low altitude. Her sting pointed forward to finish her enemy once and for all.

But Godzilla did not give up so quickly, he had never done so, he kept fighting whenever he could, only death could stop him temporarily. He braced himself with all his strength from the ground and let his energy flow through his body. His heart pumped stronger, letting as much blood as possible flow through his body. Through his tail his breath rose up, the charge would take a few seconds, a fatal weak point for an attack.

Just before it was fully charged, Megaguirus saw the blue light in the corner of his eye. Her reaction speed was twice as fast as that of a normal dragonfly, accelerating to full speed as she turned 180 degrees like a helicopter and raced towards Godzilla with her sting.

It happened so fast, but then he felt something in his chest and released a painful roar, much more serious than before, it was bloodcurdling. He looked down while his legs gave way, she sucked his breath energy away with her stinger, he wanted fire, but couldn't.

Madison had heard the scream, she and Aaron had almost been pushed to the top of the stairs. Her body was in shock, paralyzed, she saw Godzilla's life almost slipping away, the scream was the same as 6 years ago. Godzilla landed on the ground with a powerful bang, bringing back only worse memories of Boston falling from the sky. "No!" Madison screamed in despair, the world around her collapsed again.

Megaguirus let her sting slip out of her body and lay on Godzilla's back to look him straight in the eyes. He was still not beaten, after a short time he could even fight again without any problems, but until then she had enough time to devote herself to her main goal again.

Madison made eye contact with her, the angel of death. But another scream shook to the bone, it was Aaron. She watched in fear as a meganulon with his tongs penetrated his chest and left him hanging in the air in front of her. She saw the pain that Aaron was going through.

Fear flew over them, but this was quickly exchanged for another feeling, anger. Her eyes sparkled blue as she ran toward the Meganulon, just now she didn't know what else to do. "Let him go!" She screamed as she cut the monster's skull cleanly with the last pair of pliers in her hand and dropped it on Aaron.

The old man fell to the ground and made a loud groan. Madison's anger abated for a brief moment, she turned to him, kneeled down to hold his hand. He coughed up blood trying to speak. "I guess...ah...that's it little...end of the line...sorry I couldn't take care of you...ouch."

Madison was shaking, he was dying, there was nothing she could do about it, it was irreversible. Despite the fact that she had sworn to herself that it would never happen again because of her, it is. Around her, death was approaching, the remaining Meganulons from the left, Megaguirus from the right.

Her fate was sealed, but she did not give up yet. She decided to make a hard decision, she now only let herself be guided by everyone in her, she let feelings and memories flow into one. She stood up and looked directly at Megaguirus, she was like all the other evil in the world that she hated, that she was afraid of.

She closed her eyes and concentrated again. She was guided by the heat, the energy that lay within her, her experiences and memories now formed a picture in front of her, the picture of an angel she knew.

Around them, the light slowly began to get stronger, the blue crystals pulsed wildly around wildly at the minute, like a heartbeat. It stopped the Meganulons, they were confused by the sudden shine that came down on them, Megaguirus looked down and hesitated in their attack, something made them suspicious, something warned them. Then she realized how it was getting too late.

She shrieked loudly to guide her children into the attack, to stop what was thwarting her plans. But as she realized, it was too late, the ritual was complete, the energy taken over, a new Titan born.

Madison opened her eyes without batting an eyelid, drew out her fist and hit the ground in front of her. A massive blue shock wave swept from the temple across the valley, throwing the meganulons against the walls so fast and powerful that it killed her.

Meaguirus fell to the ground backwards, her senses destroyed, she was paralyzed by the massive impact of the shock wave. Once on the ground, she wanted to get back in the air immediately, but her wings were damaged, the muscles at the end were torn, she could no longer fly, her strongest advantage was eliminated. She crawled laboriously around on the ground and tried to get to the temple with bails, hoping that her children were still alive, but their sounds had disappeared. She looked up to the temple, at the entrance stood only one, Madison.

Around her was a light blue aura, her hair, eyes and paintings glowed in a light blue light. She had never felt as strong as now, now she was one of the Titans, completely taking over the role of Mothra. She was able to use powers humans had not had for thousands of years.

Before her now was one of Ghidorah's oldest allies, Mothras greatest rival and an enemy sworn by humanity, and she was before her grace.

Megaguirus tried to continue to rise into the air, but each blow caused only more extreme pain, the muscles and ligaments were openly visible, torn. The giant Titan dragged himself laboriously across the ground, his legs were not designed to move forward quickly, they were underdeveloped, victims of their own evolution.

She roared up to Madison, it was like she was offering forgiveness, much like she had asked Godzilla before. But Madison knew that Megaguirus only wanted to use this to regain strength and then kill her. She had no spark of good in her, she knew only kill or be killed, a creature so evil at its core, Madison had not seen since Ghidorah how fitting it was.

But it was also not their decision whether the angel of death would live on. Behind Megaguirus, Godzilla rose slowly, stamping once hard on the end of his opponent's tail, the sting and the rest was crushed. Painfully she roared up. She looked back, Godzilla looked at her with an angry face, he had witnessed what she could do and he would never let anything like that happen again.

He let his energy flow through him for one last shot. Megaguirus fidgeted wildly and struck forward as the sound of Godzilla's radioactive breath resounded. But she could not escape. Madisons watched.

Godzilla took a deep breath and then once again powerfully released his radioactive breath on Megaguirus. She looked Madison in the eyes, then everything went up in blue flames. She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds before her.

The crackling of the fire, the screaming of Megaguirus. But after a few minutes it was gone again. The screams had stopped, only the blue fire was still blowing through the air. Madison opened her eyes again, she saw the Titan's ashes being swirled through the air by the wind. She took a deep breath once.

It had passed, it had become what it was meant to be and the shadow was defeated.

But something else was still ahead of her, she was afraid of it. She turned around and slowly walked over to Aaron, her light slowly fading away, who was lying on the ground almost dead. He was still breathing, but only very hard. Madison knelt down and grabbed his hand, it felt very cold.

"Madison?" He asked quietly. "Yes, it's Aaron." "Did we... did we make it?" He looked at her, he could see she was starting to cry again. She sobbed, "Yes we did it Aaron. We beat it. I have changed."

Aaron smiled a little. "I am proud of Madison..." "Thank you..." She thought of the one conversation she had with Aaron about his father.

"I have something to tell you." "What is it?" He talked weakly already, he didn't have much time left. "Your father, he got your message, he knew you were alive, he loved you very much, only the island never allowed him to find you again. But he was proud of you, everyone knew that." Aaron smiled again and looked up into the sky. "tell my old man... that i loved him very much too...i won't see him anymore."

"No, Aaron, we can still save you somehow." "No, it's too late for me... but... I'm ready. I've done everything I can to help people. I've helped them get stronger, to help others... use that, you have the power."

"I'm sorry, Aaron..." Madison was in tears again, her whole body was shaking. "Doesn't it have to be...goodbye...Madison... "

He closed his eyes. Madison could feel the life just leaving him. She started crying, she didn't want to experience anything like that again.

Even with all her powers, she had not been able to stop his death. She heard a soft humming next to her. Godzilla looked down at her, visibly worried, recognizing that Aaron had died, his head tilted down. Madison got up and wiped the tears from her face for now and went over to him. With the palm of her hand she touched his nose.

"Godzilla...I'm going home. I can't live like this." she said to him. A low rumble came from him. "I'm sorry, but I just can't. I'm human, it's too much for me." She hugged his face. "Maybe we'll meet again, but I have to go back home. Otherwise I'll break. Even if I love you."

Godzilla moved his neck back a little and looked down at her. He had a light smile again, so understanding, on his face, as if he was saying "Me too. Madison wiped away his last tears and turned to Aaron, deserving of a dignified last honor.

* * *

**The Iwi village the next morning.**

Everyone in the village, women, men and children had stayed awake since last night and had been praying since they heard Godzilla's roar. Ikimi stood at the front of the wall as the leading priestess and prayed with her eyes closed, next to her stand Ato who held her hand, all praying that the God of destruction had won over the shadow, that the Good Soul had grown into something bigger.

They did not yet know that their prayers were answered, but at a price.  
From a distance, the distinctive roar of Godzilla was heard, followed by several powerful steps. Ato and Ikimi opened their eyes, and out of the morning sun came Godzilla, his body scarred by injuries, but they would not heal like what was to come.

On top of his head stood a person, with another body in her arms that was taller than her.

Concern surrounded the two as Godzilla approached, walking through the valley where he had once protected the village.

They saw Madison holding Aaron in her arms, he was dead, his life now completely escaped. Grief passed through them, a heavy loss for all.  
Godzilla had reached the wall and bent down to Ato and Ikimi, his face said he was very weak, the fight had drained him. Madison slowly slid down his head, with Aaron still in her hands, she could carry him without effort, physically she was stronger than ever before, but mentally she was broken.

When she arrived at the bottom, she stood in front of them, her face marked with deep sadness, even if no tears were shed, the Iwi showed no emotion when they were older. "He died protecting me and this island." Madison said. The two nodded to her and gave her instructions to follow. Ikimi grabbed Madison by the hands to reconnect with her. This time, Madison didn't value herself at all, she just let it happen, sharing her memories with Ikimi, who took the information and nodded at her when she was done.

They went down the wall, down to the center of the village. Some guards followed them, also marked by grief. But no one said anything, made any noise or cried. When they arrived in the village, it was as if she already knew, because there was a stretcher in front of them, woven from the plants and wood that the wall was made of, Madison put Aaron down as the rest of the village joined them, everyone from big to small gathered around her deceased friend. The oldest had joined them, the two Madison had spoken to in the ship, the most important ones, knelt down to Aaron, touching his chest and head, heart and mind.

Madison looked around her, the Iwis' heads tilted down, their eyes closed. Madison did the same to them, it was away to say goodbye to the last of them, to a friend who had accompanied them for so long.

The guards who accompanied Madison and the others gathered in a circle around him and then rammed their spears into the ground as a sign of respect. After that, from back to front, flowers collected and planted were handed from hand to hand and laid to Aaron's side, he looked so peaceful, Madison noted for himself.

Ato and Ikimi took Madison aside while Aaron's ritual was completed. It was their time to leave, Ikimi had seen what Madison had gone through, emotionally it was already too much for her, it was only her right to go home now.

Ato and Ikimi near Madison back to the wall. They realized that it had hit them hard. Ato grabbed Madison on the shoulder to calm her down. "We know what you have done, what he has done for you. He had carried his oath to protect others to the end. He was a good soul, just like you."

Madison said nothing, just nodded.

"Not all paths in our lives are easy, but sometimes we have to follow them in order to continue growing, for you it has just begun. You have taken the title of queen, but it will take time for you to find yourself in it."

The three went back to the wall of Enoch, where Godzilla was already waiting. Madison tried to remember everything here one last time, the sounds, the look of the village and the people.

She nodded one last time to Ato and Ikimi, who returned the signal. She climbed back up on Godzilla's head and sat down tightly on the nape of her neck and held on to the skin.

Godzilla took a deep breath and roared loudly one last time, it was goodbye and a sign of respect to Aaron. The entire village had turned to the two. She looked at Madison and Godzilla even though they didn't say anything, showing no emotion, Madison understood that saying goodbye to everyone here was not easy.

With heavy steps Godzilla moved in the direction from which he had once come to this island, while Madison looked behind him and slowly lost sight of the village as the sun shone over it.

* * *

**Castel Bravo landing platform October 20, 2019 18:29, one week after Madison Russell's disappearance**

It was about to rain again, like almost all other days, the sky was cloudy and only a few scattered seabirds were flying around or sitting on tubes of the platforms. It was almost repaired since Godzillas appeared, and was completely operational again.

Mark was just passing the railing with Ilene, she had her arms under his, she looked pretty happy. They had just come from a screening and were chatting a bit about everything, the movie or what tomorrow would bring.

"The movie wasn't so bad, you wouldn't say it was pretty insightful?" Ilene asked. "Well, I actually liked the scenes with the monsters." Ilene gloatingly turned her eyes, typical for men, only to the action.

"So, anything tomorrow?" "It would be to start an investigation, Rodan is active again, and we now get some samples of him and whatever had hit him. Who knows if it's still out there." Mark stopped, looked over to the sea, the waves moving wildly back and forth, the air, the sounds, everything reminded him again, it was still very early.

"Mark, I don't know how to tell them but-" "I know, but I still keep a little spark of hope, as long as it doesn't go out I know it's out there somewhere.

Ilene sighed and leaned against the railing, she felt the cold sea current coming from behind. "I know all this hits you hard, but who knows if we were even right with our theory, I was a little bit over the top at the time, the study was not confirmed, I just took it first after what we saw down in the hollow earth.

"I know that even if we are not sure, I still keep my hope. Ilene smiled slightly. "And you firmly believe that?" Mark nodded. Ilene shook her head a little and hugged him. "You're stubborn and don't give it up when it matters to you, that's what I love about you."

Mark thought of these words, she hadn't said it to him yet, but he knew Ilene had feelings for him, especially after the other night.

But something literally shook them for a short moment. A big quake went through the whole base, the two held each other very tightly, but it was quickly over again, but the quake was followed by a muffled but still loud roar that made Mark flow coldly over his back.

The two looked over from the direction where the roar came, Mark went forward to the railing, he saw him first. Godzilla headed for the base, a marker three rows of back plates cut through the water like knives.

Mark knew they had to get down as quickly as possible, he could enter the platform if he wanted to. "Hurry to the elevator!" He yelled, Ilene ran off with him immediately, back to the stairs leading to the landing platform, they ran across the field trying to reach the elevator, but too late, Godzilla was already there when they were in the middle of the field.

At first they only saw his hands holding on to the platform, so he pulled himself up. Ilene and Mark were trapped like Madison was then, holding each other. But this time they had nothing to fear.

The two stared up at Godzilla in amazement, not just because of him, but who was up there on his head. Mark almost slipped his heart into his pants in relief when he saw her, Madison standing on top of Godzilla's head.

She had seen Mark and Ilene, slowly she slid down Godzilla's head, he lowered it a few feet above the ground, she slowed her fall and landed safely. Slowly the weather got better and a few rays of sun came out and shone over Godzilla's back.

Madison stood up and looked at her father, he was shocked, but visibly happy that she was back.

But it was not quite ready to welcome each other with open arms, first she had to say goodbye to her protector. She turned Godzilla and avoided eye contact for the time being. "Then I guess this is goodbye for now." Godzilla gave a soft, however worried humming of itself, him this parting fell also not so easily. He may have been a big grim titan on the outside, but Madison learned that inside he was a sentient being.

"We'll meet again, until then, friend." She embraced him again by the face and pressed him tightly so that he could feel it. The two let go of each other, but still kept eye contact, Godzilla looked after her for quite a while until he finally swam back into the water. She walked towards the Kannte and watched him slowly submerge until the tips of his back plates disappeared underwater.

"Until then, my king." Whispered Madison. She knew it would not be the last time they would see each other, but they needed time to heal and grow, soon the world would need them.

"M-Madison?" Asked Mark, confused, not knowing what to say about what he had seen. Madison just smiled and ran over to him and gave Mark a big hug. It almost squeezed the air out of his chest, but still he was happy to be reunited with his daughter.

"I missed you, Dad." Madison sobbed, Mark nodded and kissed her on the head. "I missed you too, Maddie, I missed you too." Mark didn't cry much, but this was one of those moments. Ilene stood next to him and smiled just a little bit, she felt good that Mark should feel better. "I'll call the infirmary right away. We should check you out." She said and took a radio out of her pocket as she walked over to the elevator.

It took Madison and Mark a moment to let go, but when they did, there was time to take a breath and talk. "I never gave up on you being alive," he said, Madison seemed surprised by that. "Even in my position, with everything that could have been." He nodded. "A lot has happened, so to speak." "You can say that again." Madison laughed a little.

She looked over to Ilene who was waving them both to the elevator.

"There's a lot to talk about, but before we do that, I need you to do something for me, Dad." "Everything in my power, what is it?" "Please call Dr. Brooks, I'd like to speak to him personally."


	13. Cold blooded Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison was finally able to become the successor of Mothra, with powers no other human on the planet has. She is still growing, but already able to help others and stand up to danger alongside Titans. Now with New York under attack, she is able to prove on person wrong, and show that Titans and Humans can live together in peace.

**Chapter 13: Cold Blooded Future  
**

A few weeks have already passed, a lot has happened. The world as we knew it was no longer the same, now the gods walked again on the surface of the earth. It may have taken millennia for them to reawaken, but now they are back, and now man, the one dominant species on this planet, must prepare to live in this world or he will become extinct.

* * *

**New York, Manhattan Bay**

Madison stood there, in front of the coast of New York, leaning on the railing and looking at the brownish water of the river that mixed with the sea. She looked at an island in front of her, where an Osprey from Monarch was just passing by, it was Liberty Island. On it stood the Liberty Stow, in all its former green beauty, but now it was completely riddled with scratches and holes.

Behind her was another explosion, she turned around. Next to her, another evacuation helicopter was flying away, away from the Titans fighting behind New York City, it had already left a trail of destruction, some buildings were on fire, rubble and dust was everywhere.

People were quite panicked, yet the evacuation went quite smoothly, people were scared, but everyone went slowly into the Ospreys that would take them to the other side of the coast.

Madison felt an inner rage as she watched the Titans fight, it wasn't that she's actually angry at them, it was her instinct to fight, but right now she wasn't strong enough to take on one of the Titans, her powers weren't fully developed yet.

But as she watched, she realized that something was wrong. It was Rodan, Titanosaurus and Anguirus fighting each other, but Titanosaurus was much more careless and brutal in his attacks, he didn't care a bit if he got scratched or bitten, he just kept going without flinching. Something bothered Madison about it, even the strongest Titans gave a sign of pain as soon as they were attacked.

Madison heard a radio call over the walkie-talkie she had clipped to her belt.

"Maddie, Maddie are you there?" Mark just asked. "Yeah I'm here, what's up?" She looked over to the other end of the park where Mark and Ilene were standing with Barnes and a few other Monarch soldiers, he waved to her. "Go into one of the Ospreys, it's getting more dangerous around here."

Madison sighed, again unable to do anything. "All right." She turned off the radio and walked towards an Osprey, but kept an eye on the group, after she couldn't see the others anymore she broke her promise and let another Osprey fly off, 4 were still there.

While she was thinking about what she could do, she heard a crying, turned to the side and saw a little girl, maybe about 5 or 6 years, she was wearing a blue cap, a white shirt, blue jeans and black shoes, her hair was long and also black.

Madison went down to her as she continued to cry, not noticing the person in front of her. "What's wrong?" Madison asked her. The girl sobbed and looked up at her, she had similar hazel eyes as her. She continued to cry and didn't say a word, Madison looked around and couldn't see anyone nearby who might have belonged to her. "Did you lose your parents?" The girl nodded, she seemed to be calming down slowly, tears still streaming down her face, she was sobbing and shaking.

"What's your name, my name is Madison." "A-Alice... "Alice what a beautiful name." The girl wiped tears from her face. "I lost my mommy, I can't find her anymore." "What did your mother look like?" Alice thought for a moment, she needed to get herself together. "She had a pink shirt and blue jeans like me, blonde hair in a ponytail." Madison nodded. "How old is she, roughly." "I don't know, just how old moms are." Madison smirked a little, they would find her anyway.

"Come on, let's go find your mother." She held out her hand, and Alice looked up and took Madisons hand tightly. They walked through the park, near the water, and Madison looked now and then to the crowd to see if she was there.

Alice looked up at her and the Monarch sign on the jacket Madison just had on. "Why do you have the same sign as the helicopters on your jacket?" She asked. Madison smiled softly.

"My dad works at Monarch, he's also here in town right now trying to help people like you." "A boy in my class once said that you guys hunt the Titans, is that true?" "Well, not really, we go after them, and try to learn from them."

"What can you learn from such monsters?" "Quite a bit." Said Madison.

Alice looked over at the monsters, she saw Titanosaurus just grab Anguirus by the neck and slither several hundred feet across the ground. "Why are they hurting each other?" She stopped and watched the fight, Rodan flew down on Titanosaurus head and scratched and pecked him with his beak.

Madison reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Sometimes they are angry, a lot of them just want to be left alone and if someone enters their territory they attack each other...or sometimes something drives them to it. But then the others intervene..."

She sensed something was here, something that made the Titans attack, she had heard this voice before, just in a different way, before everything that had happened. As she listened to the sounds, she suddenly heard a deep voice calling to her, but she wasn't the only one hearing it, through the whole bay a loud roar held, muffled only by the water he was in.

Alice turned around and looked at the sea. "What-what was that?" She asked. Madison smiled and turned with her to the sea and knelt down to her level. "A good friend of mine." Alice held Madison's hand tightly as she saw a wave swimming in the bay, coming right at her. As it got closer, spiky back plates pierced the water. Wide-eyed, Alice watched as a huge Titan rose from the water directly in front of them.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt us." Said Madison. "Is that- " "Yes, that's Godzilla."

He stuck his head up in the air and let out a roar, not deafening, but intimidating enough to keep the surroundings completely still for a moment. The three Titans, however, were far too involved in their battle to notice their King.

He turned his head down, Godzilla had heard her calls, the call of help for others. He stood directly in front of the two, the head lowered, maybe 5 meters separated them. Alice was terrified, of course Madison knew that, she could feel the child's heartbeat in her hand. "I'm scared." She whispered. "I know, but don't be, hold my hand." Madison took the little girl in her arms and walked her over to Godzilla, touching his nose first. "Haven't seen you around, friend." She said to Godzilla, he responded with a soft growl stretching out over her hand, there was a pleasant tingling sensation.

Alice had her head buried in Madison's shoulder, but she could feel Godzilla's movements in front of her. "Don't worry Alice" she said, "everything is safe." She looked up and saw Madison touching Godzilla's nose, his Orange eyes sparkling at them both. Alice didn't think after it, and did the same, she reached out her hand and leaned forward and touched him. Alice felt his hum over coming over her hands as well.

Madison noticed how the little girl was breathless and fascinated, similar how she used to be when younger. "See, they're not so bad."

Alice said nothing and just looked in amazement at Godzilla, who just turned his gaze back to the Titans. Madison looked back, he couldn't go through the city head-on, that would only bring more destruction.

"Godzilla swim down the river there and attack them from the side." She pointed over to the Hudson River. Godzilla let out a slight roar that meant something like, "Yes." He trudged through the water along the side, a helicopter just flew away over his back.

"Alice? ALICE!" Madison heard the call of a female voice behind her, the two turned around, Alice was about to jump out of Madison's arms, it was a woman about 30 years old wearing a pink sweater like Alice described. "I take it you are her mother?" Asked Maddie, she was pretty sure. "Yes I am, come here Alice." She sounded quite panicked, not surprising really after what had happened, Maddie put Alice down and she immediately ran into her mother's arms hugging her tightly, almost losing her daughter, a bad feeling for any parent.

"Did something happen to you?" The mother looked at Alice for a moment. "No, but Madison had introduced me to Godzilla." "She did...?" The mother looked over at Madison, she made no effort to hide it and shrugged. "He wanted to say hi for a minute." The mother nodded, just a little unsure. "Get on one of the Ospreys, as long as Godzilla is here you should be able to pass most safely, I can't guarantee anything though."

"Who are you?" the woman asked. Madison smiled. "Just a friend of Titans."

The mother nodded again, a little uncertainly, but then made her way to one of the Ospreys, out of this city. Alice looked back at Madison and waved at her, the girl had a bright smile on her face, despite the current situation.

Madison was pleased to be able to show what the Titans are normally like.  
A radio call came in over the walky talky, it was Mark yelling they were in a tough spot right now. "Madison?!" Was roaring through, she immediately took it into her hand. "Dad? Dad what's wrong?" "It's him it's Jo-"She heard the device being ripped from her hand, followed by gunshots. Her heart stood still for a moment, expecting the worst. Shortly after, however, she heard Mark's voice again as he yelled, shouting an insult. After that she heard only more noise, the device was destroyed.

She had an assumption what could have happened, her anger inside her rose, her eyes sparkled, she clenched her fists destroying the waöly talky, she felt like being able to move a mountain in that moment.

Running through the park towards the collection point where a mass of people were just standing, right next to them were a few tents set up, the base for the evacuation.

Once around the crowds circle, directly at the tent on the far right. She rushed inside, looking directly at one person, Rick Stanston. He was bussy on his laptop, trying to continue typing information and data.  
"Rick!" Shouted Madison, he snapped to the left. "Maddie, aren't you supposed to be evacuated?" "Save your breath, where did Dad and the others go?" "What?"  
"I just heard the radio call, they're in danger, you can't tell me you didn't hear it too." Rick sighed in frustration. "Madison, get on the Osprey, we'll send a team that-" "No, cut that crap. Tell me. Where. Are. They." Maddie had an aggressive yet leading tone, a whole demeanor laced with anger. Rick was intimidated by it, he looked into her eyes and saw the light blue flash again, he hadn't quite believed what she had told them back a view weeks upon returning, his gut said otherwise right now though.

"Well they went along the main street here, their last position was on a building next to Foley Square, the big building next to it." He pointed to the large map that were placed on their table. He pulled out a watch of some sort from his pocket, it had a smaller map on it though, state of the art Monarch stuff. "Here, I've already given you the coordinates, it also shows a few other of your readings, and your position."  
"Thanks Rick." "The team should be done in a minute, they..." Only briefly had Rick turned around, but she was already racing again. He stood up and looked out of the tent, she had already run so far in such a short time.  
"Maybe there is something to it after all." He thought to himself.

Madison ran as fast as she could down the street, it was all deserted, everyone was either hiding or evacuated with the Osprey, paper and newspapers were flying through the streets, she saw the monsters now fighting Low Manhattan. Rodan was thrown back by Titanosaurus, so far that he flew over Madison. She saw the red, flaming wings glide across the sky. She looked up at him in awe, he didn't notice her though, and flew back over her on Titano, his claws fully extended to pierce through the water titan's skin. She had now reached Foley Square and saw the large building, about 100 meters high. And from below she could already see the wings of an Osprey, but it was not one of her machines. She ran over to the building, just as she ran in Godzilla went ashore, she stopped when she caught sight of his head.

She saw him yelling angrily at Titanosaurus, and just moments later the Titan fight broke in. Madison nodded, and ran into the building, as expected everything was empty, no one was there, so she could just ignore the entrance barriers in front of her, she jumped over and ran to an elevator and frantically pressed the elevator several times. A heavy vibration went through the floor, followed by a loud roar, she looked at the entrance, outside on the street a few pieces of debris flew around.

When she heard the elevator ding, she pushed the slow doors aside to get in faster. She hit the button for the top accessible floor, it dinged again and the doors closed. It would take her a few minutes to reach the top and she probably had to go up an extra floor at the top. A vibration went through the building, the light in the elevator flickered, she flinched briefly. One Titan falling through this building and it would all be over.

Madison closed her eyes and concentrated on making a connection with Godzilla, she went inside herself and concentrated on thinking about him. In this way, the two had a kind of contact over the last weeks, in her dreams they met directly, as Emma had shown her. Just now she could feel his heartbeat, he was tense, minor pains appeared, but he was fine. At his side Anguirus was fighting, they were doing well against Rodan and Titanosaurus. Even Godzilla Alpha shouts did not stop them from attacking. It reassured her, she sighed and opened her eyes again, she was about to reach the last floor.

Maddie wished she could help out, but her powers were not yet fully developed, but she kept trying new things on her. She had found out that she could run much faster and still needed a long time to get out of breath, and she had the feeling that if she jumped from where she could make a much safer landing, even if she stumbled.

The doorbell rang again, snapping her out of her thoughts. She stared at the door and nervously tapped her leg with her finger. The doors opened and she jumped through, and immediately looked around, there was chaos everywhere, notes and computers were just left behind and were scattered everywhere. She looked at the wall in front of her, a sign with an overview of the building was hanging on it, she briefly skimmed over the individual things and spotted the entrance area to the roof It was just around the corner up by a break room, as fast as she could she ran there, almost skidded across the floor as she entered. There was stuff thrown all over the floor, paper cups, cans or juice that had been poured out. In front of her was a window that gave a view of Manhattan, she saw the Titans fighting, Titanosaurus was wrestling with Godzilla while Rodan was trying to pick Anguirus.

Madison looked to her left, there was a door wide open, it had been kicked in, she walked into the stairway and briefly the shock hit her like a car, there were several soldiers, those from Mark's team lying on the floor and by the stairs, she looked around briefly, Mark or Ilene were not among them, there was nothing more she could do for them. Once she took a deep breath and got ready to confront whoever was behind them. Slowly she walked up the stairs Henoch, she heard voices talking, one of them was quite familiar to her.

At the end of the stairs was the door, she thought about it, there was no turning back once she went through that door. But the voice, the voice of an old gruesome man made her put all her eggs in one basket, she had never felt so much hate in her life.

She pushed open the door and jumped out, briefly blinded by the light in her face, but immediately heard weapons being pointed at her. "Stop!" Shouted the voice of the old man. Her vision cleared and slowly she saw Jonah standing in front of her, with an evil grin. She clenched her fists, wanting only so much to punch him in the mouth, but her circumstances were different. Several armed mercenaries stood around her, pointing their rifles at her. Beside her were Mark, Ilene and Barnes, with their hands behind their backs and kneeling on the ground. Mark seemed to have put up a particular fight, bleeding from the head.

"Long time no see Madison."  
"Let's get to the point Jonah, read them go." "Excuse me?" He laughed maliciously at her sudden demand.  
"I don't think you quite understand the position you're in. I'm in control." Madison gritted her teeth. "You and your friends will make a nice bounty for my continued operations, of course I will only let you live as long as I need to." "Jonah, stop before you're sorry."

"I feel sorry for you, do you want to continue joking with me, you seem to be at least as stupid as your mother." "I'm not like her!" "Even if that may be, you will always stand in having helped her and thus me. And now I can present my plan for healing nature."

Madison looked over at the soldiers, there were 6, and one standing next to Jonah, he had a device in his hand, it looked familiar, she was trying to play for time. "So you replicated the orca?" Jonah looked over at her and then at his sidekick and growled. "Not as dumb as I thought, though."

"Madison he has..." Mark called up to him. "Shut him up." Jonah ordered. A mercenary woman hit him over the head. "Dad!" Maddie tried to dash forward but a female henchman pointed a gun at her.

She looked more important, she had her own outfit, her hair was charcoal black, she had a purple jacket and a red belt and black gloves, under the jacket she apparently had a black turtleneck. She was Japanese, and slightly shorter than Jonah. "Belvera, if she makes a move, shoot." "Roger that." The woman grinned wickedly at Madison.

Madison on the contrary felt all the alarm bells going off inside her, something was wrong with her, in the background you could hear Godzilla's roar again.

"Let's get rid of Mister Professor first, he would only be a burden to us." Said Jonah. One of the henchmen nodded and pointed a gun at Mark's head. "No!" Shouted Madison. "On three. One," said Jonah, "Two," Madison couldn't let it happen. She felt it again, like the day Aaron died.

Before Jonah could say three, she ran forward and again released her energy and ran toward her father.

For a few seconds, everyone on the roof was blinded by a bright light, shots were fired, Jonah could see nothing and instinctively took cover. When the light went away and he could see again what was in front of him, his breath was taken away.

Madison had wings of light, shaped like those of Mothra. They were wrapped around Mark and the others, protecting them from the gunfire. "Maddie?" Mark asked. He saw his daughter standing in front of him, protecting him. "You would do the same for me." She said with a soft smile.

Jonah stood up and looked in shock at the girl he once thought of as nothing more than a pain in the ass. "What the hell?" Cursed Belvera.

"Hold on." Said Madison, holding Mark's arm, which in turn held Ilene, which in turn held Barnes. With a leap, Madison got rid of her wings in a kind of shockwave or pulse, it knocked over all the soldiers and disarmed a couple of them. It also knocked down Belvera, Jonah just barely managed to stand. He coughed as dust was kicked up and wiped his hand in front of him.

He felt a tremendous pain go through his chin and into his head, as if he had just been hit by a wrecking ball. Madison had turned all her hatred for him into a single blow, sending him flying at least ten feet through the air until he slammed his back into a vent pipe. The last thing he felt before passing out was the air being pushed out of his chest as one of his ribs broke. Madison looked at him, she knew he wasn't dead, but defeated, she never felt better.

"Madison, the Orca!" Shouted Mark over to his daughter, she looked over to him, he had taken cover behind an electrical box where Barnes and Ilene were also behind it, both had just grabbed a gun each and taken cover. "This is the same thing as San Fransico all over again." Barnes cursed.

Madison found the Orca device, it was on the edge of the building. She ran over as fast as her legs could, feeling bullets fly through the area and just barely missing. She was about to reach it, only 2 meters were left in front of her. A loud shot came from the right, in the corner of her eye she could make out Belvera, then a bullet pierced her stomach. There was no pain, everything happened so fast, she was pumped with shock and adrenaline. But the force made her stumble, her body turning in the air and with her back she fell on the edge of the building, next to the Orca device. As she bounced to the ground, her vision blurred every few seconds, her heart beating faster. Looking to the left layed the Orca, just an arm's length away lay the Orca she tried to grab it, a pain in her hand stopped that. Madison yelled out and tried to pull it away again, but Belvera pressed on her hand with her shoe, her fingers almost breaking.

Pointing the gun at her, she said, "Whatever you are, you won't stop me that easily." Carefully picking up the Orca, she loaded a new round into her revolver and aimed it at Madison's head. "Move just a little bit, and I'll pull the trigger." Madison remained as still as she could, even then she was shaking all over, with fear and anger. "What do you want." Madison asked her. "Tss, I already know you want to play for time, but simply put, use your power." "You can forget it." "Oh yeah, but kinda looks bad for you right now, who's going to help you now."

But Belvera's self-confidence turned out to be a sore spot, just like Jonah's, and it was too late until she noticed a huge shadow building up in front of her. Now Madison was the one to allow herself a little grin.

Belvera stared up at Godzilla, who was looking right down at her, his eyes glaring angrily at her, growling loudly. Frozen in place, she stood paralyzed with fear, eyeing the king. Madison used the distraction once more she used her power and took it all out. Her hair and eyes sparkled blue, she pushed Belvera's foot off her left arm and punched her in the stomach with the right hand, Belvera had to gasp as she fell to the ground, Madison snatched the revolver from her hand threw it to the ground and stepped on it once, shattering the gun. With clenched fists she now stood in front of Belvera who was lying on the ground, Madisons hair and eyes pulsating in the blue light, her wounds healing much faster until she had almost completely regenerated.

"Now what?" Madison yelled at her. But Belvera still had this Orca-like device with her. It was much smaller and handier and sturdier, they had refined the design. Slowly she turned up a dial, it had to be something like signal strength. But Godzilla or Madison were not disturbed by it, but behind them they could hear Rodan and Titanosaurus roaring. Madison looked behind her, Titanosaurus was coming towards her, while Rodan was more aggressive towards Anguirus.

"Godzilla, stop him!" Madison called up to him. Without hesitation, he turned and rammed Titanosaurus head-first in the chest, bringing him back to within a few feet.

As Maddie turned again she saw Belvera taking a knife from her belt and walk towards her, Madison prepared to unleash another shockwave, but a shot in Belvera's shoulder came from the side, with a loud yell the knife fell to the floor. Madison snapped her head to the side, at the entrance stood a soldier with an unusual uniform, he wore some kind of armor and a helmet with a darkened visor, in his hand he held a smaller machine gun. He ran forward, slid down to the ground, threw a grenade over Mark and the others heads, towards the mercenaries and slid back into cover. A loud bang came followed by a light, it was a stun grenade, he used the distraction to get out of cover and take out the mercenaries with well aimed shots.

When the dust had settled, he turned to Madison and Belvera, pointing the gun at her as she layed with her back to the wall. He pushed a button on his helmet a bit and made the blackout on his face go away. It was Ford Brody, he was the original team Rick had intended, the Titan Hunter.

Madison grabbed the Orca device that Belvera dropped. Carefully, she walked herself over to Ford and stood at his side. Mark and the others came out of hiding, Ilene helping Mark walk.

"Miss, in the name of Monarch you are under arrest, stand up and put your hands behind your head." Brody shouted, Belvera doing as he said. Madison looked down at the Orca device in her hand, the vibrations coming from it made her angry, her instincts going on aggression. "I don't think anyone will need this anymore." She broke it in half, sparks flew briefly, but after that the signal was cut off.

Only moments later, they could hear Titanosaurus and Rodan roaring extremely loudly. Madison looked over at them, Anguirus and Godzilla stood confused in front of their opponents as they shook their heads wildly and scratched their heads until small explosions happened at the back of their heads.

Madison looked down at the remains of the device, it had controlled them, that's why they had fought. They had actually reworked the original design. Who knows what they could do with it.

Belvera was shocked to see all of her and Jonah's planning undone. But this was far from the end, there was time to retreat and rebuild. She pressed a button on her arm band that she had hidden, it sent a signal to the Osprey where the pilot was holding steady so far. He took off and positioned himself behind Belvera, leaving the cargo door open.

"You better not do that." Ford warned her, darkening his helmet again.  
"Hit me first." She said and jumped into the Osprey, into it, as she ran forward he did hit her in the leg and she fell to the ground, but the flap closed before he could do anything else and the Osprey flew off. He aimed the gun after her, but there was nothing he could do, they needed her alive and from the air no one could guarantee that.

"Damn." He cursed.  
"Next time." Madison answered him. He took off the helmet and took one deep breath, watching the Osprey flying away across the city, this was another exhausting mission for him.  
"I think I'd better sit down, the armor isn't that light." "Homemade?" Madison asked him. He shook his head and sat down at the edge of the building.  
"Designed by Monarch, prototype version, should provide more protection, but I'm barely mobile in it." He took a water bottle from a belt and took a good swig, handed it to Madison afterwards. "No alcohol, just water." She nodded and took it a sip as well. "You did good, you're Madison, aren't you?" "Yeah." She nodded and handed the bottle back to him. "My name is Ford Brody, nice to meet you." He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you too, I have heard a little bit from you already." He nodded again. "Good to have you back, your old man didn't look so good the last time I saw him." Mark, Ilene and Barnes joined the two.

"Didn't expect to see you here." Said Mark, coughing briefly, he had been battered a bit, a black eye was probably gona stay for a few days. "Oh well, you know I'm not far away on events like this." He said and rubbed his hands, picking up the machine gun and his helmet again. "Besides, Monarch wanted me to test the new equipment." He took another swig from his flask. "Thanks Ford." Ilene said with a smile. He just nodded at her.

Behind them, Godzilla was approaching the building again and looking down at the group. Out of habit, Ford stood up and wanted to grab his gun, but when he saw that it was Godzilla, he refrained from shooting. It had been a long time since he had seen him, back then Godzilla actually looked a little different. "Don't worry, he won't hurt us." Said Madison. "I know." Ford answered her.

Godzilla leaned down and looked down at the people, again they had helped him next to his partner were faces he even knew, still from many weeks and years.

Cautiously Madison put his feet on the edge and touched his muzzle, for today the fight was over. Ford put down his gun and stepped closer to Godzilla as well. "It's quite safe, isn't it?" He asked Madison, she nodded at him. Carefully, he reached out and now touched Godzilla's snout as well. He had never been so close to Godzilla since 2014, he felt honored in a way. He looked into the Orange Eyes of the Titan, as once then he had saved him. "He remembers you." Said Madison. Ford looked briefly at her and then back at Godzilla who slowly rose from them again. Stunned, he just stood there thinking about how everyone's paths had changed here since 2014, and how they were here now, allied.

Godzilla looked behind him, Rodan, Titanosaurus and Anguirus gathered around him expecting to see his partner, she would now be one of them.

He leaned back down to Madison and gave a soft loud, calling her to him. "They want to see me. It won't be long." Madison said, turning over to Mark. "I-just watch out." With a happy smile, she nodded at him. Watching her climb up Godzilla, he whispered, "I'm proud of you." Ilene heard it and had a satisfied smile on her face.

Madison held onto Godzilla's scale, like a magnet the two reacted to each other, from high up on his head she could see the city, a great deal was devastated and it would take time for everything to be fully rebuilt, at least it prevented much worse from happening. Madison looked in the direction where Belvera had disappeared, it was certainly not the last time they would meet and she had to prepare for more such events, the control of Titans.

A roar snapped them out of their thinking. In front of them, Anguirus, Rodan and Titanosaurus looked up at Madison, all with a different reaction on their faces, while Anguirus looked peaceful, and Rodan a bit confused, yet curious, Titanosaurus was a bit suspicious of her. She looked at him, he didn't seem to like humans very much, he seemed to accept it though.

Madison went into herself and released some of her energy, there was not much left, she had used some of it to heal her wound. She rekindled her wings of blue light, and let her eyes and hair glow again. Anguirus and Rodan bowed to her and Titanosaurus did too, she had become Mothra's successor and a Titan like her. She was the little queen to a Cold blooded King.

* * *

**Thank you very much for reading, this has been a very fun ride, even with its flaws, that I hope I will be able to iron out in the future. I'm so glad were it went, thanks to everyone who actively read the story and supported it, since with that it turned from a side story into my main project and constantly improved on myself.**

**Now I hope we will see each other again soon in my story of Godzilla vs Kong "Alpha Blood."**


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